Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at another Middle East threat to global energy markets, the United Kingdom’s new prime minister, and rising political unrest in Ukraine.

First, Hormuz. Now, Red Sea.

Houthi rebels in Yemen declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia on Monday, opening another potential pressure point for global energy markets that are already suffering from Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Riyadh has yet to formally respond.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at another Middle East threat to global energy markets, the United Kingdom’s new prime minister, and rising political unrest in Ukraine.

First, Hormuz. Now, Red Sea.

Houthi rebels in Yemen declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia on Monday, opening another potential pressure point for global energy markets that are already suffering from Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Riyadh has yet to formally respond.

Last week, the Tehran-backed proxy group accused Saudi Arabia of bombing Yemen’s Sanaa International Airport to stop an Iranian plane from landing. The aircraft was reportedly carrying members of Houthi leadership who had attended the funeral of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Although the plane was able to successfully land at another Yemeni airport, the Houthis quickly retaliated with missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport. And on Monday, the group expanded its retribution by vowing to block Saudi shipping between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Since the Iran war effectively stalled all traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Riyadh has relied on a pipeline to the Red Sea to export millions of barrels of oil. At the same time, Tehran has pressed the Houthis to close the Red Sea’s Bab el-Mandeb Strait if the United States continued targeting Iranian power infrastructure; U.S. forces carried out their ninth consecutive day of strikes against Iran on Monday.

Should the Houthi blockade prove to be effective, and if Tehran orders the rebel group to close off Bab el-Mandeb, then global oil supplies could be further reduced, as most Saudi crude exports would be unable to leave the region. Experts warn that this could have drastic consequences for energy markets.

Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restore disrupted supply chains have proved to be futile thus far. On Monday, Iranian Interior........

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