Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree announced the blockade in a video statement, calling it a blockade for blockade response to what the group says has been Saudi Arabia's siege on Yemen's ports and airports for nearly 12 years. Saree said the ban would kick in right away, no waiting period attached. The move comes just days after the Houthis fired missiles and drones at Abha airport in southern Saudi Arabia, following an attack on Sanaa's airport that broke a truce which had held since 2022. Saree framed the whole thing as an eye for an eye, and he warned any further Saudi action would get met with what he called a comprehensive and harsh response.The Houthis are the Iran backed group that's been fighting a grinding war inside Yemen since 2015, and this latest move drags Saudi Arabia deeper into the wider standoff already building between the US and Iran.No one from Riyadh has answered back yet, at least not publicly.It's the mobilization call buried in the statement, not the blockade line itself,that's got analysts more worried.
The Bab el Mandeb strait sits right at the center of this, one of the busiest shipping lanes on the planet for oil tankers heading toward Europe. Saudi Arabia has already rerouted more than 70 percent of its crude exports to the Yanbu terminal on the Red Sea,a shift that started once trouble flared up around the Strait of Hormuz,and this blockade threatens to choke off that route too, right when the kingdom needs it most. Nobody's said yet what the blockade will actually look like once ships start moving.
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