Houthi threats in Red Sea risk new front in U.S.-Iran war

The Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen are signaling a major escalation in the war between the Islamic Republic and the U.S., threatening a blockade on a key Red Sea shipping route that facilitates about 7 percent of the world’s oil supply. 

The move would borrow from the Iranian playbook that has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz and compound the global energy crisis spurred by the Iran war. 

The Houthis in their announcement on Monday said they are specifically targeting all of Saudi Arabia’s energy and other exports through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. But the consequences are global.

“The Houthis are trying to thread the needle with this threat,” said April Longley Alley, senior fellow at The Washington Institute. 

“They’re focusing on Saudi Arabia, not on the U.S., Iran or the Straits of Hormuz. But effectively, by doing this, it’s directly connected to that regional conflict, because obviously Saudi’s ability to export oil is a vital lifeline.”

The Houthis are looking to extract key concessions for their own domestic purposes, calling for a complete end to Saudi restrictions on their air and seaports, among other demands, Alley said. 

The triggering event for the Houthis was a July 13 attack on the Sanaa airport in northern Yemen, which prevented a sanctioned Mahan Air flight from Iran from landing. Analysts say Saudi Arabia carried out the strike, which had the effect of violating a four-year ceasefire that had been relatively stable. 

“Iran is not a bystander in what is happening right now, they are the ones who facilitated the flight with the Houthi delegation to and from Sana’a,” Alley said. She called it a “brazen step” by Iran to create a new status quo in Yemen. 

The fact that Saudi Arabia was willing to compromise the ceasefire suggests that the benefits of the truce had changed for Riyadh, said Brian Carter, research manager at the Critical Threats Project and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute — or that the Saudis had calculated whatever was on that plane posed an........

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