LONDON/DUBAI — Yemen’s Houthi movement is weighing a plan to charge commercial vessels passing through the southern Red Sea, regional sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters, just one week after the group announced a naval blockade targeting Saudi Arabia.
The Iran-aligned Houthis declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia on July 20, marking a further escalation in their confrontation with the United States and its allies in the Iran war and extending attacks on tankers carrying energy and other global supplies beyond Gulf waters.
According to the sources, the Houthis are studying fees on most shipping traffic moving through the Bab el-Mandeb strait, the narrow passage connecting the southern Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. They said no timeline has yet been set for when such a measure could take effect.
The Houthis’ media office did not respond to a request for comment.
Houthi officials visited Iran in July to attend the funeral ceremony of late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, where Iranian counterparts raised the idea of charging vessels transiting Bab el-Mandeb, two regional officials briefed by Tehran told Reuters.
The proposed fees are aimed at making charges on international waterways appear more routine while increasing pressure on the United States, the sources said. Chinese vessels would be exempt, they added, and the Houthis were supportive of that arrangement.
China has held direct talks with the Houthis to secure safe passage for its tankers through the southern Red Sea, sources have previously told Reuters. Beijing is the world’s largest buyer of Saudi Arabian oil.
IRANIAN ADVISERS GUIDE FEE PLAN
Houthi officials who returned by plane from Tehran were accompanied by Iranian advisers who were on the ground to guide them on setting up a potential authority that will regulate fees through the Bab el-Mandeb, an Arab official in the region said.
“The Houthis will try to gain access over the Red Sea, and they will try to charge ships if they do,” Afrah al-Zouba, foreign minister-designate with Yemen’s internationally recognized government, told Reuters.
Such a move would face strong opposition from Gulf and European countries, although overstretched international naval forces are currently unable to provide sufficient protection for merchant shipping and there is little political appetite to change that, two Western diplomats said.
Tehran has ruled out Oman’s proposal for regional joint management of the Strait of Hormuz that would include voluntary fees from ships, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday, scuppering hopes for a resolution to the impasse that has choked off Gulf trade in that chokepoint for months.
SAUDI ARABIA FACES SUPPLY THREAT
Closure of the Bab el-Mandeb would deprive Saudi Arabia of a critical alternative to the Strait of Hormuz and heighten fears of oil supply shortages.
Red Sea traffic has not fully recovered since Houthi attacks off Yemen’s coast began in November 2023 in what the group said was an act of solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war. The group’s attacks on merchant ships only ended with the Gaza ceasefire last October.
At least one Saudi tanker has been attacked in the past week off the southern Saudi port of Jizan, near Yemen, and the Houthis claimed responsibility.
The Houthis were previously alleged to have collected fees from some shipping agencies transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden during the height of their maritime campaign in 2024 in exchange for safe passage, according to a 2024 U.N. Panel of Experts report, which said it was unable to independently verify the information.
Those fees were estimated to have reached $180 million a month, although those details were not verified.
Sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb to Asia takes on average 16 days, versus 50 days if cargoes are rerouted through the northern Red Sea, through the Suez Canal and then via southern Africa.
