Iran has asked Yemen’s Houthi movement to stand ready to close the Red Sea oil route if the United States strikes Iranian power infrastructure, three sources have told the Reuters news agency, posing a potent new threat to global energy supplies.
The idea 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 said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The sources said the Houthis had been informed recently of Tehran’s request, which has not been previously reported.
They did not give further details on how it had been conveyed or whether it was after US president Donald Trump’s threat to attack Iranian power infrastructure on Tuesday.
Iran’s foreign ministry and a spokesperson for the Houthi group were not immediately available to respond to a request for comment.
A Houthi supporter in Yemen brandishes a weapon during a protest. The Houthis have launched numerous drone and missile attacks targeting shipping vessels in the Red Sea. Photograph: EPA
A source close to the Houthis said the group had completed preparations to attack shipping by deploying missiles and drones near Bab el-Mandeb strait, the gateway to the Red Sea, in Yemen’s highlands overlooking Hodeidah and the Gulf of Aden and was awaiting the order to begin.
Any threat to the Red Sea and its Bab el-Mandeb gateway risks hugely exacerbating the global energy crisis triggered by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and underscores the explosive risks stemming from a new round of warfare.
With the Hormuz strait already shut, any Houthi attacks on vessels or ports in the Red Sea would leave the Middle East’s two main oil export routes disrupted simultaneously, opening a new front in both the energy crisis and Iran’s wider conflict with the United States.
Representatives of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who are already in Yemen will control the decision on when to close the Bab el-Mandeb strait, said the source close to the Houthis.
In a sign of escalating tensions in the region, the Houthis fired missiles at Saudi Arabia after accusing the kingdom of bombing an airport under their control on Monday, breaking a four-year truce in the conflict between the kingdom and the group.
Torbjorn Solvedt, principal Middle East analyst with risk intelligence company 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.
Two regional sources close to Riyadh said the kingdom was taking threats from Iran and the Houthis very seriously, adding that Riyadh was aware the Yemeni group was now closely co-ordinating with Iran over the Red Sea.
The conflict began on February 28th, when Israel and the United States attacked Iran, leading Tehran to shut the Strait of Hormuz, the main route before the war for around a fifth of global energy supplies.
Tensions have mounted since a fragile June truce between Tehran and Washington collapsed, reviving fears of full-scale war and disrupting energy flows through the Strait.
Boys play in the shallow waters of the Strait of Hormuz, as a plume of smoke rises from an explosion in the background. Photograph: Razieh Poudat/AP
The US launched a fifth night of attacks on Wednesday and reimposed a naval blockade of Iran’s ports, which Washington says is aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz, closed by Iran last Saturday after a fragile truce collapsed. After the first strikes on Wednesday night, Tehran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf issued a statement saying: “We are in an essential and existential war with America”.
Iranian army spokesman brigadier general Mohammad Akraminia said on Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz, which carried about a fifth of global oil and gas shipments before the war, was a “red line” for Iran over which it maintains firm control. “The Americans thought that by attacking some of our bases on the southern coasts of the country, they could take control of this strategic strait,” Akraminia said.
“However, the Islamic Republic of Iran has the ability to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz from every single point of its territory, and this matter is never dependent on coasts and islands.”
Three US officials told Reuters that US strikes aimed at forcing open the strait are also targeting Iranian military capabilities the US would want to destroy before executing more complex operations.
Iran’s army earlier said in reference to the strait: “We will undoubtedly resist until the end and will neutralise American interventions in the region”.
Iran’s military spokesperson has said that the only way to reopen the Strait of Hormuz was for the US to comply with the 14-point memorandum of understanding that the two sides signed in June, and the implementation of “Iranian regulations” regarding ship traffic in the strait.
Trump on Tuesday threatened to hit Iranian power plants and bridges next week unless Tehran resumes negotiations.
Akraminia said that if Trump carried out the threat, Iran’s armed forces would strike “all remaining infrastructure” across the region, and the response would be more severe, wider in scope and more destructive than previous attacks.
Iran said on Thursday it had targeted US bases in Kuwait and Jordan, warning its neighbours against allowing the US to launch attacks against it. “Our neighbours should know that providing a base to the Americans and allowing them to fire on Iranian soil is unacceptable and will not go unanswered,” Iran’s army said in a statement.
By early Thursday in the Middle East, sirens sounded in Bahrain, and Kuwait said it was responding to “hostile drone threats”.
Iran’s army said it targeted the Al Azraq Air Base in Jordan with ballistic missiles, while Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had destroyed the satellite communications centre and early warning radar at the Ali Al Salem Air Base, as well as a US military pier in the Al Shuaiba area of Kuwait.
The Bahraini defence ministry said the country’s air defence systems had intercepted and destroyed a number of Iranian aerial attacks targeting the kingdom on Thursday.
An anti-US billboard depicting US president Donald Trump in a coffin, accompanied by a sentence in Persian that reads: “We kill Trump” displayed at the Enghelab Square in Tehran, Iran. Photograph: EPA
The latest escalation and Iran’s threats to shut off more regional energy exports and possibly strike regional infrastructure raise the spectre of a return to full-scale war in the region. Analysts say Iran has signalled it may use its Houthi allies in Yemen to shut the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea, opening a new front against Washington and putting a second of the world’s most vital energy arteries at risk.
The war has killed thousands of people and displaced millions, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, where conflict restarted between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hizbullah. – Reuters