Iran has asked Yemen’s Houthis militias to stand ready to close the Red Sea oil route if the United States strikes Iranian power infrastructure, three sources told Reuters on Thursday, posing a potent new threat to global energy supplies.
The idea has been discussed within Iran's leadership, and the message has been conveyed to its 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 Houthis were not immediately available to respond to Reuters' request.
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.
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 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.
Nine vessels travelled through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, the first day after the US reimposed its naval blockade on Iranian ports with both countries escalating strikes across the Gulf, shipping data showed.
The vessels crossed the strait, mostly on the Iranian route, down from 13 the previous day, Kpler data showed.
There were no Very Large Crude Carrier or liquefied natural gas tankers visibly passing through the strait.
Five empty vessels entered the Gulf, including three small oil tankers and two dry bulk carriers for grains, the data showed. The four vessels that exited the strait on Wednesday carried liquefied petroleum gas, coal, fuel oil and fertilizer.
On Tuesday, a Suezmax tanker carrying 1 million barrels of Saudi crude exited the strait with its transponder switched off, Kpler data showed.
