Houthis consider imposing fees for Red Sea passage: Report

Yemen's Houthis could be looking to impose fees on maritime traffic coming through the Bab el-Mandeb gateway, the Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday, citing regional sources. 

Saudi Arabia has utilised Bab el-Mandeb as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blocked for US-allied vessels since March, following the launch of the US-Israeli war on Iran on 28 February.

And last week, the Houthis attacked a Saudi tanker off the southern Saudi port of Jizan. 

While no timeline has been set for imposing the fees, it would ramp up pressure on the Trump administration to wind down its war on Iran, Reuters said. 

The Houthis are allied with Tehran, and the group is understood to have begun developing the plan after its senior representatives returned from the funeral for slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

While China is negotiating fee-free travel for its vessels, western diplomats have told Reuters that overstretched international forces simply cannot be policing the Red Sea to force the rest of the traffic through. 

Red Sea traffic overall has not returned to pre-November 2023 levels, ever since the Houthis began attacks on Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. 

Middle East Eye reported in July that tens of billions of dollars will be spent in the coming years to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, according to experts. 

The UAE is building a second pipeline to the port of Fujairah to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, doubling its export capacity by 2027.

Meanwhile, Iraq - the second-largest producer in the oil cartel Opec - signed a deal with Syria in July to rehabilitate a pipeline from its northern oil fields to Syria’s Mediterranean coast. MEE was the first to reveal the project and its US backing.

Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline has emerged as a model for the region. It brings crude from the Gulf coast to the kingdom's Red Sea. Riyadh is also eyeing ways to boost its capacity, further diluting its reliance on the Strait of Hormuz. 

Iran's Red Sea option

The Houthis first announced a maritime embargo of Saudi Arabia on 20 July, escalating tensions with Riyadh in the Red Sea at a time when it is serving as a linchpin for global energy markets.

From Syria to UAE, the race to bypass Strait of Hormuz is on

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The Houthis' armed forces said in a statement that they had imposed "a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of 'an eye for an eye', effective immediately".

Saudi Arabia condemned the announcement, saying the Houthis were trying to "deflect" attention away from their economic mismanagement and public discontent. 

"The Houthi militia dragged Yemen into the regional conflict and targeted commercial ships in the Red Sea, thereby exacerbating the suffering of the Yemeni people, preventing them from traveling, and worsening the economic situation," Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said in a statement.  

The Houthis did not say how they planned to impose the embargo, but it comes as tensions with Riyadh were already rising over the status of flights to Sanaa, the capital of Yemen held by the Houthis.

Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman has suggested to counterparts that Riyadh has wide latitude from the Trump administration to conduct offensive strikes on the group, but other elements of the Saudi government say the kingdom’s posture is solely defensive, MEE reported recently.

Saudi Arabia and the Houthis traded fire last week for the first time in years, threatening a 2022 truce backed by the United Nations that has held despite expiring.

The exchange of fire was set off when an Iranian plane arriving from Tehran attempted to land in Sanaa, challenging the status quo under which Yemen’s connection with the outside world has mainly been restricted to flights to Cairo and Amman.