Saudi Arabia is working to build an international coalition to safeguard commercial shipping in the Red Sea, after Yemen's Houthi movement announced a maritime blockade of the kingdom and began targeting its oil tankers and energy infrastructure. The composition of the coalition is still being negotiated and has been discussed with dozens of countries, according to sources familiar with the deliberations. No official comment has been issued by Riyadh.
The Houthis — officially known as Ansar Allah, an Iran-aligned armed group that controls much of northwestern Yemen including the capital Sana'a — declared the blockade on 20 July, accusing Saudi Arabia of nearly 12 years of siege and resource exploitation. Since then, they have claimed a series of attacks on Saudi vessels, prompting Saudi retaliatory air strikes on what Riyadh described as Houthi military facilities at Hodeidah port, Yemen's main Red Sea harbour. The escalation has pushed oil prices higher and added to pressure on global energy markets already strained by Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical Persian Gulf chokepoint through which roughly one-fifth of the world's crude oil and liquefied natural gas previously flowed.
A further alarm has emerged around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait — a narrow waterway at the southern mouth of the Red Sea whose name means "Gate of Tears" in Arabic — which has become a vital alternative export route since the Hormuz disruption. Yemen's Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said intelligence indicated that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is directly advising the Houthis on a scheme to collect transit fees from commercial vessels passing through Bab al-Mandeb, including establishing a dedicated entity to manage payments. Eryani called it "a dangerous escalation aimed at transforming one of the world's most strategic maritime corridors into a permanent source of funding for the militia's military and terrorist activities." Analysts note this mirrors Tehran's own insistence on charging tolls for Hormuz transit.
Gulf states have been acutely anxious about being drawn into the broader conflict. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud held calls with his Qatari, Kuwaiti and Bahraini counterparts, who stressed the importance of de-escalation while condemning attacks by Iran and what they described as its affiliated militias in Iraq and Yemen, calling for stronger coordination through the Gulf Cooperation Council. Meanwhile, the United States and Saudi Arabia jointly struck targets in Iraq linked to pro-Iran paramilitary groups, killing at least 20 people according to the Iraqi alliance involved.
The widening crisis underscores how the Red Sea — already disrupted by Houthi attacks on Israel-linked shipping during the Gaza conflict, which had forced cargo vessels on lengthy detours around southern Africa — risks becoming a second front of sustained maritime instability. Whether a new multilateral coalition can meaningfully deter further Houthi action will depend heavily on which countries agree to participate and under what mandate, details that remain unresolved.