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Houthi blockade of Saudi trade threatens wider Middle East conflict

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Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Tehran-allied Houthi movement edged closer to opening a new front in the Iran war overnight, after Riyadh bombed the port city of Hodeidah in retaliation for a Houthi missile strike on one of its ships in the Red Sea.
The exchange marks the latest escalation since the Houthis, known formally as Ansar Allah, imposed an embargo on Saudi shipping on Monday, disrupting maritime traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal.
A near-identical Houthi missile attack on an oil tanker owned by the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia on Thursday had already prompted threats of American military intervention from US President Donald Trump.

“If they do this again, the US will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a surrogate and/or proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The Houthis claimed a missile attack on the southern Saudi city of Jizan on Saturday, after media the group controls accused Saudi Arabia of a “dangerous escalation” and said its actions “will not go unanswered”.

A US warship fires missiles in March last year after Donald Trump ordered military strikes against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis. Photo: US Central Command/Reuters
Pakistan, which shares a mutual defence pact with Saudi Arabia, warned it would “take all necessary measures, including lawful use of force”, should its own “maritime interests” come under threat.
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