Two oil tankers carrying Saudi crude to China and India reversed course in the Red Sea on Tuesday after Yemen’s Houthi movement announced a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, marking the first confirmed disruption to shipping from the threat. The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen and the coastline near the Bab el-Mandeb strait, declared the embargo on Monday, warning shipping companies not to load or unload cargo at Saudi ports and stating that vessels involved in such trade could be targeted “in any location.”

The Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Saree, described the blockade as retaliation for what the group calls a Saudi-imposed siege on Yemen and an attack on Sanaa’s international airport. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the announcement as “baseless allegations” and said the kingdom would take “all necessary measures” to protect its vessels. The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen warned it would respond “with speed and firmness” to any threat to shipping. In Washington, US President Donald Trump said the Houthis had not yet closed the strait but that the United States would “take care of it” if they did, citing previous military action against the group.

The Bab el-Mandeb strait, a 29-kilometre-wide chokepoint at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, handles roughly 15 per cent of global maritime trade. Since the Strait of Hormuz became largely impassable due to the US-Iran conflict, Saudi Arabia has relied on its Red Sea port of Yanbu to export more than four million barrels of crude per day via pipeline. Maritime risk analysts in London note that even sporadic Houthi attacks could drive up war-risk insurance premiums and prompt shipowners to avoid the area, effectively closing the waterway. Oil prices rose more than two per cent on Tuesday, with Brent crude trading above $91 a barrel, and analysts warned that a simultaneous disruption at both Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb could remove a significant share of global oil supply from the market.

The Houthi move follows a rapid unravelling of the truce that had held in Yemen since 2022. Tensions spiked after a Houthi delegation returned from the funeral of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran; Saudi-backed Yemeni authorities attempted to block their plane from landing in Sanaa, and the Houthis accused Riyadh of bombing the airport runway. The group then struck Abha airport in southern Saudi Arabia, its first direct attack on the kingdom in four years. Viewed from Tehran, the Houthi escalation opens a second maritime front at a moment when US air strikes on Iranian military and infrastructure targets have intensified, and Iranian forces have struck US-linked sites in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed to have hit Amazon infrastructure in Bahrain and accommodation for US military personnel, while Kuwait reported damage to power and desalination plants.

The US Central Command confirmed overnight strikes on Iranian command centres, missile sites and air defences, and the Pentagon has requested an additional $70 billion in funding for the conflict, which has already cost $37.5 billion. Diplomatic channels remain open: Iran’s interior minister met Pakistan’s prime minister in Islamabad on Tuesday, and both Tehran and Washington have signalled willingness to resume talks. For now, however, the Houthi blockade threat has added a volatile new dimension to a regional war that is increasingly testing the resilience of global energy supply chains.