Houthis announce maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait

Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 21 July 2026, www.thecommunists.net

1.           The Houthis – officially known as Ansar Allah – have declared "a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi ⁠enemy, based on the equation of 'an eye for an eye,' effective immediately." They said that this decision is a response to Saudi Arabia's “unjust and oppressive siege” on Yemen. Ansar Allah – which is allied with Iran – successfully withstood an invasion of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in 2015 and the resulting war of aggression which ended with a fragile ceasefire in 2022. Today, Ansar Allah controls the north-west of Yemen – the most populous region of the country. After 7 October 2023, it started a military campaign of solidarity with the Palestinian people, sending missiles and drones against the Zionist states and blocking Bab el-Mandeb – the strait which connects the Red Sea at the Horn of Africa to the Indian Ocean – for ships destined for Israel.

2.           Saudi Arabia has imposed a siege against the Houthi-controlled regions in Yemen since 2015. A few weeks ago, Iran and the Houthis restarted flights between Teheran and Sanaa. As a result, Saudi forces bombed the airport in Sanaa to stop an Iranian airplane from landing. The maritime blockade against Saudi ships is the Houthis’ response to this escalation.

3.           The maritime blockade at Bab el-Mandeb can have dramatic consequences for Saudi Arabia and the capitalist world economy. About 12% of global trade pass through the Strait – in addition to nearly 8% which usually moves through the Strait of Hormuz but has been blocked since the beginning of the Iran War on 28 February. Bab el-Mandeb has recently become particularly important to Saudi Arabia as it was forced to redirect much of its crude exports through its Red Sea terminal at Yanbu because of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The strait's closure means that most of Saudi Arabia’s oil exports will be unable to leave the region and cause global supplies to fall by 7%, according to data from shipping analytics firm Kpler.

4.           The Houthis declaration of maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia – an important ally of Washington – effectively means that they are joining the anti-imperialist war against the American-Zionist monster. Why did Ansar Allah joint the war now? The main reason is that U.S. and Israeli imperialism are losing their war of aggression against Iran and, as a result, Iran and its allies are gaining confidence. This is why they recently broke Riyad’s air blockade for the first time since 2015 and why they react so determined to the Saudi aggression.

5.           We see a similar picture in the rekindled Iran War. The Trump Administration felt forced to restart the war because Iran’s insistence to control the Strait of Hormuz (without making any significant concessions) has been a public humiliation for Washington. However, while the U.S. bombarded the southern part of Iran, the Iranian forces have retaliated quiet effectively. They are battering the U.S. military bases in the whole region with 4 U.S. soldiers killed and nearly 100 injured in the last 10 days. And while Trump threatens Iran to escalate the war even more, American military are suffering shortage of ammunition for its air defence. The Washington Post quoted an U.S. official saying that the US was “planning for a wider war” but that this would be limited by dwindling stockpiles of air defences and long-range munitions. “We do not have enough to safely sustain operations, and I don’t think the White House is aware of that.”

6.           A new assessment of U.S. spy agencies has concluded that Iran’s government is unlikely to feel significant impact or soften its negotiating position as a result of new rounds of U.S. military strikes. While Trump wants to avoid a strategic defeat in the war against Iran – a defeat which would accelerate the decline of the former hegemon – it is doubtful that he is willing or even able to mobilise the necessary resources to defeat Teheran. On one hand, Washington sends more warplanes to the region; on the other hand, it is relocating forces from its military bases in the Guld region to Israel. Political pressure on the Trump Administration to end the war is massively increasing given its huge unpopularity at home and the approaching midterm elections in November which could result in the loss of the Republican majority in Congress. And a few days ago, Washington confirmed that the U.S. military will completely leave Iraq by the end of September.

7.           The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) strongly welcomes the decision of Ansar Allah to impose a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia and, therefore, to effectively join the war against American-Zionist monster and its local allies. From the very beginning we have taken the side of Iran in this war without lending political support to the bourgeois-capitalist regime in Teheran. Likewise, we side with the just wars of national defence of Hezbollah against Israel as well as of the Houthis against the Saudi-UAE forces.

8.           We take the side of Iran and its allies not because we harbour any illusions in the bourgeois policy of their leadership which is directed at improving their position as a regional power in alliance with Russian and Chinese imperialism and within the existing world order. Nevertheless, under the given historic circumstances, the imperialist world order in the Middle East is dominated by the U.S. and its most important ally Israel. Hence, a military victory of Iran and its allies would objectively be an important blow for imperialism. It would massively weaken America’s domination in the Middle East, and it would also have devastating consequences for the Apartheid state Israel. It would therefore massively improve the conditions for the liberation struggle of the Palestinian people and all other oppressed peoples in the region.

9.           In order to ensure a defeat for the American-Zionist monster and to advance the struggle for the expulsion of all imperialist forces and for the destruction of the settler state, it is not enough to close the Straits of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb or to bombard some military bases. For this, it is necessary to transform the conflict into a popular war of the oppressed masses in the whole region against imperialism, Zionism and dictatorships. Revolutionary forces in all countries must work towards mobilising the workers and peasants in a struggle for the overthrow of the reactionary regimes, for the closure of all foreign military bases and for the rupture of any ties with Israel. In other words, the task is to revive the Arab Revolution. As part of such a strategy, it is decisive to overcome all national and sectarian divisions (e.g. Arabs vs Persians, Sunni vs Shia) and to build a united, internationalist struggle against the imperialism and Zionism.

10.         Such a revolutionary offensive of the masses could aid the heroic Palestinian people and destroy the Zionist settler state – opening the road to build a free Palestine from the river to the sea. Our perspective is the creation of workers and fellahin republics in Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and all other countries of the Middle East as part of a socialist federation.