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Amid Iran’s total closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz, the Houthis have now threatened to shut another key waterway – the Bab al-Mandeb Strait – if the United States and the “complicit world” does not end policies that obstruct regional peace.
The global energy supply, which is already adversely impacted by the Strait of Hormuz blockade, is likely to worsen if Bab al-Mandeb – a vital chokepoint for the Suez Canal – is also closed.
This comes as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced the closure of the Hormuz strait, citing American “aggression” and an illegal blockade of Iranian ports. In Yemen, Hussein al-Ezzi, deputy foreign minister of the internationally unrecognised Houthi administration, has warned that the Bab al-Mandeb Strait could be
shut down completely.
Al-Ezzi directed his warning towards US President Donald Trump and a “complicit world”, demanding an immediate end to all practices and policies that he claimed obstruct regional peace. He said if the decision is made to close the waterway, “all mankind and jinn will be utterly powerless to open it”.
“If Sana’a decides to close the Bab al-Mandab, then all of mankind and jinn will be utterly powerless to open it. And therefore, it is best for Trump — and the complicit world — to immediately end all practices and policies that obstruct peace, and to show the respect required for the rights of our people and nation,” Al-Ezzi said in a post on X.
Simultaneously, the US reaffirmed its alliance with Israel. President Trump recently took to social media to laud Israel as a uniquely “courageous” and “loyal” partner, while criticising NATO allies for not rising to the occasion.
His declarations appear to have intensified the friction between the US-led alliance and regional factions like Iran and the Houthis.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), meanwhile, said its decision to block Hormuz is in direct retaliation for a US-led blockade of Iranian ports. Tehran said the American blockade is a flagrant “violation of the conditions of the ongoing ceasefire”.
While the IRGC had previously established a “specific corridor” to allow non-military vessels to navigate the waterway following the initial ceasefire, this policy has been abruptly rescinded.
The Houthi threat, however, places a significant portion of the world’s seaborne commodities at risk as the 29-km-wide Bab al-Mandeb Strait is essential for transporting crude oil and fuels from the Gulf to the Mediterranean, alongside Russian oil bound for Asian markets.
