{"id":219379,"date":"2026-08-04T09:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T09:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/saudi-arabia-slams-houthi-blockade-how-will-rest-of-the-world-be-impacted-aljazeera-com\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T09:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T09:07:14","slug":"saudi-arabia-slams-houthi-blockade-how-will-rest-of-the-world-be-impacted-aljazeera-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/saudi-arabia-slams-houthi-blockade-how-will-rest-of-the-world-be-impacted-aljazeera-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia slams Houthi blockade: How will rest of the world be impacted? – aljazeera.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saudi Arabia has condemned the Houthi naval blockade that could impact oil flow to importers of Saudi oil.<\/em>
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Houthi maritime blockade threatens Saudi oil exports, analyst warns
Saudi Arabia on Monday condemned allegations by Yemen\u2019s Iran-aligned Houthis that Riyadh was imposing a siege on the Yemeni people, after the group announced \u200cit would impose a maritime blockade<\/a> on Saudi Arabia.
Amid the disruption in shipping through the Strait of Hormuz during the US-Israel war on Iran<\/a>, Saudi Arabia was attempting to facilitate oil flow through alternative routes<\/a> through the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Now that route is under threat from the Houthis.<\/p>\n

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it would take \u201call necessary measures\u201d to protect its ships.
The Houthis have a track record of disrupting shipping traffic in the Red Sea. Here is a closer look at the blockade and what impact it might have beyond Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis said on Monday that they would impose a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, opening a potential new front against the US in its war with Iran and raising the threat to global energy \u2060supplies and trade beyond the Gulf.
In their statement, the Houthis said the declaration of the maritime embargo was \u201cbased on the equation of \u2018an eye for an eye'\u201d and affirmed \u201cthe right of our great people to respond to the blockade with a blockade\u201d and to \u201call escalation with escalation\u201d.
The Houthis also expressed \u201ccomplete readiness for all options\u201d and warned that \u201cany foolish\u201d Saudi act would be met with a \u201ccomprehensive and decisive\u201d response.
\u201cWe call upon the people of our great nation to continue the general mobilisation and general call to arms, and to be fully prepared for all scenarios and developments and to support the fronts with fighters,\u201d the group said.
It was not immediately clear how the Houthis would implement the maritime blockade or whether it could signal a return to attacks on international shipping off the Yemeni coast.
The Houthis disrupted global commerce when they began\u00a0attacking ships<\/a> around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait following the launch of Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023. The attacks ended with the announcement of a \u201cceasefire\u201d in Gaza in October 2025.
The Bab al-Mandeb chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden is one of the world\u2019s most important shipping routes, including for oil exports worldwide.
Between Yemen to the northeast and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa to the southwest, the strait is just 29km (18 miles) wide at its narrowest point, limiting traffic to two channels for inbound and outbound vessels using the Suez Canal.
In 2024, about 4.1 billion barrels of crude oil and refined petroleum products passed through the strait \u2013 about five percent of the global total.
With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed since Israel and the United States launched their war on Iran in late February, shutting down Bab al-Mandeb as well could block 25 percent of the world\u2019s oil and gas supply.
The Houthis, who seized Yemen\u2019s capital, Sanaa, in 2014, accused Saudi leaders of imposing \u201can unjust and oppressive siege\u201d for nearly 12 years, \u201cplundering our resources and imposing a comprehensive blockade on our ports and airports by land, sea, and air\u201d.
Yemen has been mired in civil war for more than a decade since the Houthis seized the capital, prompting a \u2060Saudi-led military intervention in 2015 in support of the internationally recognised government.
The conflict has since evolved into one of the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crises, leaving the \u2060country divided between a Saudi-backed and internationally recognised government in Aden and a Houthi administration in Sanaa.
Cargo ships and other vessels have regularly arrived at \u2060the port of Houthi-controlled Hodeidah, including in recent weeks, delivering food, fuel and other goods, according to shipping data.
The announcement came days after the Houthis blamed Saudi Arabia for attacking Sanaa airport, despite Yemen\u2019s internationally recognised government claiming responsibility, saying it was to prevent an Iranian plane from landing in the capital.
In response, the Houthis fired ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia\u2019s Abha International Airport, which the Saudi-led coalition said it successfully intercepted. That followed fighting between Houthi and government forces in Hodeidah, threatening four years of precarious calm since the signing of a temporary truce.
\u201cThe Houthis and the Saudis, unfortunately, have not been able to make their ceasefire hold. And it\u2019s gone south pretty quickly. And obviously led to this, this blockade being announced,\u201d Michael Stephens, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, told Al Jazeera.
\u201cBut of course, it has to be seen within the context of everything that\u2019s going on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, and the war that has now restarted in the Gulf between Iran and the US.\u201d
The announcement is likely to further hamper Saudi Arabia\u2019s crucial oil exports.
The East-West Pipeline<\/a>, also known as the Petroline, is operated by Saudi oil giant Aramco. Aramco is one of the world\u2019s largest companies, with a market capitalisation exceeding $1.7 trillion and annual revenues of $480bn. The oil giant controls 12 percent of global oil production with a capacity of more than 12 million barrels per day (bpd).
The 1,200km (745-mile) pipeline runs from the Abqaiq oil processing centre close to the Gulf in Saudi Arabia to the Yanbu port on the Red Sea on the other side of the country.
From there, oil tankers ship the oil through Bab al-Mandeb to major Asian markets and elsewhere.
Ship tracking data from Kpler and Signal Ocean showed that shipments from Yanbu averaged four million barrels per day in recent weeks, up from around 973,000 bpd a year earlier, according to Reuters.
Total petroleum volumes transiting Bab al-Mandeb were 7.4 million bpd in June, or about 7 percent of global oil output, according to Kpler data. That is compared to 4.2 million bpd last year.
In 2024, Saudi Arabia exported $187bn of crude petroleum, making crude petroleum the country\u2019s biggest export, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC).
In that year, China imported 25.6 percent of this crude petroleum, while South Korea imported 15.8 percent, Japan imported 15.4 percent, and India imported 10.5 percent.
Since China and India are major buyers of Saudi crude, their refiners rely on steady Saudi volumes \u2014 all of which come through the Bab al-Mandeb. Disruptions mean higher import costs, greater reliance on spot cargoes, and potential pressure on domestic fuel prices and industry.
India has also emerged as a key Asian supplier of refined petroleum products to Europe, so any sustained disruption to Saudi flows or Gulf shipping would likely push up the price of oil products exported to European markets.
Stephens said the blockade would be \u201chugely harmful\u201d to the oil economy.
\u201cEssentially, what you\u2019re doing is you\u2019re shutting off the vast majority of oil supply\u201d from one of the world\u2019s largest suppliers of crude in the world, he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s going to have very deleterious effects on the oil market.\u201d
\u201cIf you\u2019re [US President] Donald Trump and you want to see oil down at $70 a barrel, that is not going to happen,\u201d Stephens added.
Oil prices edged higher on Tuesday, with Brent crude futures at $89.70 a barrel by 09:50 GMT. Before the US-Israel war on Iran, Brent crude futures averaged around $70 per barrel. Following the outbreak of the conflict, prices peaked at $126 per barrel.
\u201cIt is going to cause inflationary pressure in Western economies, and actually in Asian economies as well,\u201d Stephens said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to cause more trouble in terms of depleting oil reserves in economies that have already been struggling because of this now five-, six\u2011month blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Saudi Arabia has condemned the Houthi naval blockade that could impact oil flow to importers of Saudi oil.SaveShareHouthi maritime blockade threatens Saudi oil exports, analyst warnsSaudi Arabia on Monday condemned allegations by Yemen\u2019s Iran-aligned Houthis that Riyadh was imposing a siege on the Yemeni people, after the group announced \u200cit would impose a maritime blockade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}