Iran has instructed Yemen’s Houthi movement to stand ready to shut the Bab al-Mandeb Strait — the gateway to the Red Sea — if the United States strikes Iranian power infrastructure, three sources told Reuters on Thursday. The directive would open a second major maritime chokepoint to disruption alongside the already-closed Strait of Hormuz, threatening to strangle global energy and trade flows through the Middle East’s two primary export routes simultaneously.
Two senior Iranian sources and a regional source familiar with the matter said the idea had been discussed within Iran’s leadership and conveyed to the Houthis recently, speaking on condition of anonymity. A source close to the Houthis said the group had completed preparations to attack shipping by deploying missiles and drones near the strait, in Yemen’s highlands overlooking Hodeidah and the Gulf of Aden, and was “awaiting the order to begin”.
Representatives of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps already stationed in Yemen will control the decision on when to close the waterway, the source said. The IRGC declared separately that the region’s energy exports would be “either for everyone or for no one”.
A Dual Chokepoint Strategy
The threat comes as the Strait of Hormuz remains shut following its closure by Iran on February 28, when fighting between Iran, the United States, and Israel erupted. A fragile June truce between Tehran and Washington has since collapsed, reviving fears of full-scale war. President Trump threatened this week to target Iranian power infrastructure, raising the stakes further.
A significant share of Gulf oil has been rerouted through a Saudi pipeline to the Red Sea port of Yanbu since the Hormuz closure, meaning the waterway now carries around 7 percent of global energy supplies. Torbjorn Solvedt, principal Middle East analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, said the flare-up between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia had come at a bad time. “If fighting intensifies and spills over into Red Sea export infrastructure and shipping, it will threaten the only major alternative route for oil exports from the region,” he said.
Escalation on Multiple Fronts
The Houthis fired missiles at Saudi Arabia this week after accusing the kingdom of bombing Sanaa airport, breaking a four-year truce. Two regional sources close to Riyadh said the kingdom was taking the threats from Iran and the Houthis “very seriously” and was aware the Yemeni group was now closely coordinating with Tehran over the Red Sea.
One regional source described the strategy as part of broader “Iranian thinking” aimed at pressuring the United States by raising the potential cost to the global economy. Closing down the strait “would not be difficult,” the source said. “Anybody with a firing rifle can interrupt the shipping. You don’t have to have sophisticated missiles to interrupt the shipping”.
