Yahya Sarea, military spokesman for Yemen's Houthis, announced a full maritime embargo on Saudi Arabia on Monday 20 July, effective immediately1. Houthi forces began hailing vessels on open maritime frequencies near Yemen the same day, telling them the Bab al-Mandab was closed to Saudi traffic2.
Bab al-Mandab is the strait between Yemen and Djibouti where the Red Sea meets The Gulf of Aden, and roughly a quarter of global container traffic passes through it. Six vessels had reversed course by Tuesday 21 July, according to Lloyd's List ship-tracking data. Among them was the Chinese Very Large Crude Carrier Xin Long Yang, which turned in the Red Sea rather than continue towards a Saudi port3.
Houthi forces fired nothing, boarded nothing and stopped nothing. Rear Admiral Vasileios Gryparis commands Operation Aspides, the European Union's naval protection mission in the Red Sea. He said the Houthis "remain a threat to navigation despite not having attacked any merchant vessels since September 2025"4. Holding the Strait of Hormuz shut has cost a great deal more: a naval blockade, Marine boarding parties putting armed personnel on foreign decks, and eleven consecutive nights of bombing.
Sarea framed the embargo as retaliation for Saudi Arabia's blockade of Yemeni ports and a Saudi strike on Sanaa airport. The Houthis say that strike was aimed at an Iranian aircraft carrying their leadership home from Ali Khamenei's funeral5. Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry called the declaration false and a distraction from the group's "economic mismanagement and public discontent", and said The Kingdom would take "all necessary measures" to protect its ships6.
Whether the six turnbacks answer the radio calls, the owners' own risk desks or both cannot be separated out from tracking data alone. No war-risk premium specific to Saudi-bound traffic has yet been established either. What can be said is that the traffic changed course within two days of a broadcast, and that nobody had to sail a warship to make it happen.
