Iran seeks end to Saudi blockade of Yemen after Tehran-backed rebels take key port

Iran has called for an end to Saudi Arabia’s blockade of Yemen and urged immediate talks as Houthi rebels intensify threats near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Escalating attacks risk disrupting global shipping, raising oil prices and reigniting Yemen’s civil war 

Cairo: Iran’s government on Friday called for an end to Saudi Arabia’s blockade of Yemen and the immediate resumption of talks, in its first public statement since Iran-backed Houthi rebels entered a key Yemeni port and intensified their threat to a key global shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.

In a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency, Iran’s foreign ministry said Yemen’s sovereignty must be respected and its problems cannot be resolved through a blockade or military alliances.

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Iran also said it was ready to help support negotiations. Meanwhile, experts say the developments in Yemen could give Tehran more leverage in any negotiations with the United States after over six months of war.

Events threaten a key Strait of Hormuz alternative

The Houthis’ entry into the Red Sea port of Mokha on Thursday brings them within 80 kilometres of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, an important alternative for global shipping as Iran targets vessels on the Strait of Hormuz. It’s the rebels’ biggest territorial gain in years.

The Bab el-Mandeb at the southern end of the Red Sea is especially important to neighbouring Saudi Arabia, a key US ally, whose blockade of the Houthis has fed into the rebels’ escalating attacks on Saudi shipping as the kingdom tries to get its oil out of the region. About 12 per cent of the world’s goods are typically shipped through the strait.

Disruption to the waterway could mean trouble for all shipping and for the price of crude oil, which has now soared again. Already, the Houthis in recent weeks have been targeting Saudi oil infrastructure and ships on the Red Sea.

Saudi Arabia, which earlier this week said it had always offered “opportunities for negotiation,” also has said it has the right to defend itself in response to the Houthis’ actions under the blockade they declared on the kingdom in July.

Shipping through the Bab al-Mandeb had fallen by about 60 per cent since the Houthis began attacking some ships there in late 2023 while expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Shipping increased this year as Saudi Arabia sought alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz, but renewed Houthi threats have “curtailed” that activity, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

The fighting risks a return to civil war

In a statement released Friday, the National Defence Council of Yemen’s Saudi-backed and internationally recognised government on Thursday strongly condemned the Houthis’ renewed attacks on Saudi Arabia, saying it would respond to threats. It said a military operation by Yemeni forces would not be limited to a single front.

The sharply escalating fighting threatens to end a fragile truce that had largely halted Yemen’s civil war since 2022.

At stake are the 40 million people in the Arab world’s poorest country who fear a return to the conflict that killed 150,000 and brought many others to the brink of famine.

The Houthis have been at war with Yemen’s government since 2014, when the rebels swept from their mountainous heartland and seized much of northern and central Yemen. Saudi Arabia entered the war the following year on behalf of the government.