Saudi Arabia has unveiled a multinational maritime defence coalition and is preparing a significant military offensive against Houthi forces in Yemen, as a broader regional conflict spreads across new fronts and threatens critical shipping lanes. The Saudi defence ministry announced that representatives from 43 countries and the European Union attended a founding meeting for the coalition, with 14 nations — including Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia — signing a joint statement backing the initiative. Saudi Arabia will serve as the coalition's founding state and host its permanent headquarters. The coalition is designed to safeguard freedom of navigation and protect energy supply lines through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden — some of the world's most strategically vital waterways.
The coalition's formation comes as Yemen's Houthi rebels, the Iran-aligned movement that controls the capital Sana'a and much of the country's Red Sea coastline, announced a naval blockade on Saudi shipping earlier this month and have since claimed a series of attacks on Saudi-linked vessels. Houthi forces say they will lift the blockade only once Saudi Arabia ends its own blockade on Yemen, framing the confrontation as part of the wider Yemeni civil war that began in 2015. On 25 July, the Houthis claimed strikes on oil transport infrastructure inside Saudi Arabia linking eastern oilfields to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. In response, Saudi Arabia has conducted airstrikes on what it described as Houthi military facilities in Hodeidah, Yemen's main port city on the Red Sea.
Beyond naval measures, Yemeni sources indicate Saudi forces have been withdrawing from eastern Yemen, a movement observers interpret as repositioning for a possible ground offensive. Military analysts believe the likely target is al-Bayda, a governorate in central Yemen that Houthi forces captured between 2020 and 2021. Riyadh has also asked the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy to join a Red Sea security coalition. The EU already operates a naval protection mission called Aspides in the region. Saudi defence minister Prince Khalid bin Salman held an urgent meeting with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance to discuss next steps, with Riyadh signalling it wants to defend itself without triggering a broader escalation with Iran.
The Saudi moves are taking place against a sharply deteriorating regional backdrop. Saudi Arabia publicly joined US strikes on Iran-aligned militia groups in eastern Iraq on Wednesday — a first in the five-month-old conflict — after drone attacks originating from Iraqi territory hit Saudi oil facilities, killing at least 20 people. Iran's Revolutionary Guards claimed retaliatory strikes on US military assets in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain, though US Central Command denied that any aircraft were destroyed or damaged. A drone strike also hit two gas vessels at Egypt's Mediterranean port of Damietta — raising fears of threats to Suez Canal traffic — prompting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to warn of serious escalation. Pakistan, which is serving as a mediator between Washington and Tehran, insisted on Thursday that US-Iran negotiations remain ongoing despite the exchange of strikes.
The stakes for global energy markets are considerable. Up to 80 per cent of Saudi crude exports previously moved through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has been contesting, forcing Riyadh to shift more than half its oil shipments overland to Yanbu for Red Sea export. If Houthi pressure closes that route as well, Saudi Arabia's ability to export oil could be severely constrained — with significant consequences for global energy supply chains. Diplomatic channels remain open, with Oman mediating between Iran and the US over the Hormuz dispute, but the rapid spread of military action across Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Egypt signals that the window for a negotiated de-escalation may be narrowing.