Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said yesterday they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, a move that opens a new front against the United States in its war on Iran and widens the threat to global energy supplies and trade beyond the Gulf.
The announcement came despite signs that Tehran and Washington wanted to resume diplomacy to halt an escalating cycle of attacks that has all but wrecked a fragile interim agreement signed last month. Oil prices briefly rose after the Houthis’ statement but fell back due to traders’ hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough.
Iran had been pressing the Houthis to close the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea if the US continued to attack Iranian power infrastructure. The full closure of the strait would cut global oil supply by 7 percent as it would leave most Saudi oil exports unable to leave the region.
The disruption would add to the massive cut to global oil flows from the war in the Gulf, which has already reduced shipments by 10 percent of global supply.
In their statement, the Houthis’ armed forces said they were declaring “a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of ‘an eye for an eye’, effective immediately” in response to what they called “an unjust and oppressive siege” imposed on Yemen by the Saudis.
There was no immediate response from Saudi Arabia.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters yesterday that Tehran had received a proposal from mediators for a 10-day ceasefire in an effort to salvage the interim deal, intended to pave the way to a lasting agreement to end the war that began on February 28 with US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said mediators had recently presented proposals to Tehran, signalling that diplomatic contacts remain active.
Separately, two Pakistani government sources said Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni, on his second visit to Islamabad in less than a week, had asked Pakistan to resume its mediation role in Iran’s conflict with the United States.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian yesterday said his country was in a “full-scale war” with the United States and that Tehran should accept the repercussions of the conflict.
The diplomatic push followed another night of US strikes on Iranian cities and attacks by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on US military assets across the region.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said two oil tankers had exploded after attempting to transit the strait via an “unsafe” route. On Sunday, the IRGC had said two ships were involved in an “accident” in the same area. It was unclear whether the two incidents were related.
Separately, a vessel was struck by an unknown projectile off Oman’s coast, overlooking the Strait of Hormuz, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said. The vessel remains adrift but the crew are safe, it said.
US Central Command said its ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran aimed at “degrading” the country’s ability to attack commercial vessels in the strait’s vital shipping lanes. It gave no further details.
In Iran, explosions were reported in Tabriz, Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Mahshahr and Bandar Imam Khomeini. One person was killed and several others wounded southwest of Tabriz, according to state news agency IRNA.
The IRGC said it targeted US aircraft at Jordan’s Aqaba airport with ballistic missiles, as well as military assets at Kuwait’s Al-Adiri camp and Ali Al Salem Air Base, and positions in Syria.
Sirens sounded in Bahrain throughout yesterday, while Kuwait’s army said it again intercepted Iranian drones.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed that the United States would continue to target Iran as long as it attacked global commercial shipping.
