Trump warns Houthis over Saudi naval blockade threat as two key oil-trade straits face disruption risk
Yemen's Houthi movement threatened to seal the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a corridor for nearly 15% of global seaborne trade, as President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that the United States would respond if the group moves forward with a declared naval blockade against Saudi Arabia. Iran has separately instructed the group to prepare to close the strait if the U.S. attacks Iranian power infrastructure, adding pressure on global supply chains that rely on both waterways.
Yemen's Houthi movement threatened to seal the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a corridor for nearly 15% of global seaborne trade, as President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that the United States would respond if the group moves forward with a declared naval blockade against Saudi Arabia. Iran has separately instructed the group to prepare to close the strait if the U.S. attacks Iranian power infrastructure, adding pressure on global supply chains that rely on both waterways.
Blockade declaration and Washington's response
The Houthis announced the prospective naval blockade against Saudi Arabia on Monday. Saudi forces struck Sanaa International Airport the same day, targeting a Mahan Air flight from Iran that a U.S. official told Axios was believed to be carrying weapons, missile components and Iranian military personnel. Trump, speaking in the Oval Office, was direct about Washington's posture. "So far, it hasn't happened, might happen, but we take care of things," he said. "If something like that happens, we take care of it." The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command declined to comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sought Trump's approval before launching the strikes, and that approval was granted, according to Axios.
The physical stakes across both straits
The Bab el-Mandeb connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and sits at one end of the route linking Asia to Europe by sea. Together with the Strait of Hormuz, which handles Persian Gulf traffic hundreds of miles to the east, the two waterways normally carry roughly one-third of global seaborne oil trade, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. Simultaneous disruption at both would press energy exports and push shipping costs higher.
The Houthis have already forced a major reroute. Since late 2023, the group has carried out more than 190 attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, pushing major carriers onto the longer passage around the southern tip of Africa.
Analyst views on Iran's regional position
This week's airstrikes and Houthi missile launches marked the most significant cross-border escalation between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in roughly four years, following a U.N.-brokered truce in 2022 that had largely held.
Bridget Toomey, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the Saudi strikes were aimed at stopping Iran and the Houthis from normalizing a direct air link between Tehran and Houthi-controlled Sanaa. Such a corridor would provide an easier route for weapons, drones and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps advisers into Yemen. She called Riyadh's action "a measured escalation." She also noted the geographic fact that sets the Houthis apart from other Iranian partners. "Iraqi militias or Hezbollah don't sit on a maritime choke point," Toomey told Fox News Digital.
Gregg Roman, executive director of the Middle East Forum, said the administration's posture reflects a broader effort to contain Iranian power projection. "The Iranians are trying to project power. The president is supportive of any effort to limit that projection," Roman told Fox News Digital. Roman said Washington was also signaling it would not allow supply flows to the Houthis to continue unimpeded.