File image.
The leader of the Houthis (Ansar Allah) threatened on July 16 to strike oil and other vital facilities in Saudi Arabia if Riyadh joins attacks on Yemen.
“All Saudi oil facilities and vital installations will be targets for our missiles and drones if Riyadh gets involved” in striking Yemen, Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech carried by the group’s Al-Masirah television.
“The real equation is… airports for airports, ports for ports, and a blockade for a blockade,” he warned.
Earlier this week, the Houthis attacked Abha International Airport in the southern Saudi province of Asir with missiles and drones. The attack was in response to a series of Saudi strikes that hit Sanaa International Airport in the Yemeni capital, preventing an Iranian plane from landing.
The latest threat came after Reuters published a report revealing that Iran has asked the Houthis to stand ready to close the Red Sea oil route if the United States strikes Iranian power infrastructure.
The plan has been discussed within the Islamic Republic’s leadership, and the message has been conveyed to Iran’s Houthi allies, two senior Iranian sources and a regional source familiar with the matter told the news agency. The sources said the Houthis were recently informed of Tehran’s request, which had not previously been reported.
They did not give further details on how it was conveyed, or on whether it came after US President Donald Trump’s threat to attack Iranian power infrastructure on Tuesday.
A source close to the Houthis said the group has completed preparations to attack shipping, having deployed missiles and drones near the Bab el-Mandeb strait, the gateway to the Red Sea, in Yemen’s highlands overlooking Hodeidah and the Gulf of Aden, and is now awaiting the order to begin.
The Bab el-Mandeb strait, a narrow 20-nautical-mile chokepoint between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, funnels an estimated 10 percent of the world’s seaborne oil trade and vital container shipping between Asia and Europe, making it one of the planet’s most strategically vital—and volatile—maritime corridors.
Any threat to the strait risks hugely exacerbating the global energy crisis triggered by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
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