Dual Blockade of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb Creates Severe Global Energy Shock: Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and Houthi threats/attacks on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea have pushed Brent crude above $96/barrel, disrupted ~25% of seaborne oil/gas and a third of Europe’s imports, with ripple effects on global shipping and energy prices.

Disproportionate Impact on Developing Economies: While Europe can absorb higher costs through reserves, borrowing, and diversification, countries like Bangladesh (fuel reserves of 9–14 days), Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, and parts of South Asia and Africa face acute risks of blackouts, factory shutdowns, fertilizer shortages (urea prices up 86%), and harvest failures, potentially pushing 45 million more into acute hunger.

Crisis Is a Sorting Mechanism: The blockade highlights global inequality — rich economies endure pain, while poorer nations risk systemic rupture. Agricultural planting windows cannot be reopened like shipping routes, locking in long-term food security damage beyond immediate financial costs.

On Wednesday, President Trump vowed to destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant every time Tehran fires on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, as U.S. forces completed a twelfth consecutive night of air strikes against Iranian targets. Two days earlier, Yemen’s Houthis had told the world’s shipping companies over open maritime frequencies that the Bab al-Mandeb was now closed to Saudi vessels, after hitting two Saudi supertankers carrying two million barrels each. Riyadh suspended its Red Sea oil exports within hours. Brent crude pushed past $96 a barrel on Thursday morning—a six-week high—and American gasoline climbed back over $4 a gallon.

Read those developments together and the picture is stark. The situation escalated further Thursday morning as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard formally declared the Strait of Hormuz “completely closed” following a tanker fire along a mined route. On July 12, ten ships transited it; the normal figure is........

© Eurasia Review