ISLAMABAD/RIYADH – Pakistan issued a strong warning to Yemen’s Houthi movement, saying any threat to Pakistani-flagged vessels or maritime interests will be treated as a threat to its national security. The statement came after Houthis announced naval blockade targeting Riyadh, raising fresh concerns over Red Sea security and trade.
Houthi military spokesperson said the blockade is effective immediately, accusing Saudi Arabia of strangling Yemen with a “12-year siege” that starved its people and choked off its ports and airspace by land, sea and air. The target of the blockade is the Bab al-Mandab Strait, an 115-kilometer chokepoint separating Yemen from Africa, and one of the most strategically explosive slivers of water on Earth.
Islamabad takes a strong stance as a quarter of the world’s sea traffic now hangs in balance after Yemen’s Houthi rebels throw down the gauntlet, and Islamabad answers with a rare warning.
The statement went further, blasting the Houthi blockade as a direct assault on regional security and “rules-based maritime order,” and expressing concerns over reports that commercial vessels engaged in lawful trade were now being threatened simply for doing business with Saudi Arabia. Islamabad also raised fears that Riyadh was being deliberately dragged deeper into the wider Middle East conflagration, while reaffirming its “unwavering support” for KSA’s sovereignty and security.
Since Suez Canal opened in the 18th century, this passage has served as fastest maritime bridge between Europe and Asia. Today, a staggering quarter of all global sea traffic threads through its waters. According to US Energy Information Administration, roughly 5 million barrels of oil flow through the strait every single day, alongside 8% of the world’s liquefied natural gas shipments.
The stakes for Saudi Arabia specifically are enormous, with Strait of Hormuz already compromised amid US-Israel war with Iran, Riyadh has come to rely on Bab al-Mandab to move staggering 70% of its oil exports, pumped from eastern oil fields to the port of Yanbu and out into world markets.
The blockade threat didn not emerge from nowhere, it’s the latest eruption in war that has already devastated nation. Since Houthi rebels seized Sana’a in 2014 and a Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year to try to restore the ousted government, Yemen has been gutted by violence. UN estimates more than 150,000 people killed and over 20 million trapped in what it calls one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes on Earth.
A fragile peace had held since 2022, until now. The immediate trigger, according to Houthis, was Saudi strike on Sana’a airport, which the Saudi-backed Yemeni government says was necessary to stop an unauthorized Iranian aircraft from landing. The Houthis responded with missiles aimed at Abha airport — and then upped the ante with the blockade declaration.
Lurking behind the crisis is Iran, the Houthis’ longtime supporters, whose fingerprints analysts say are all over the region’s tensions. The blockade threat lands amid roughly 10 days of US military strikes on Iranian targets.
Iranian media signaled this exact scenario months in advance. Back in April this year, an Iranian military source quoted by News Agency declared that Bab al-Mandab was a “strategic strait” and that Iran possessed both desire and capability to turn it into a genuine threat. This is not the Houthis’ first assault on Red Sea shipping. When the Gaza war erupted 3 years back, Houthi missiles and drones tore into commercial vessels in these same waters, killing at least nine people and gutting maritime traffic through the strait for months.
Whether Houthis will actually strike Saudi-bound vessel remains anyone’s guess. The truth is nobody knows yet, but mere announcement creates uncertainty for Saudi ports.
And in global shipping, uncertainty is its own kind of blockade, one that can send insurance premiums soaring, reroute tankers thousands of miles out of their way, and rattle energy markets already on edge.
