Two oil tankers carrying Saudi crude to Asia reversed course in the Red Sea on Tuesday after threats from Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, as a widening Middle East conflict disrupted shipping through two of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints.
US forces bombed targets in the south and west of Iran overnight, while Tehran targeted US sites in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan and a tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf.
Iran said it had struck infrastructure belonging to Amazon in Bahrain, where the US tech company operates a regional data centre. Amazon did not immediately comment and Reuters could not verify the report.
The Houthis, who control northern and western Yemen including the coast at the mouth of the Red Sea, announced a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia on Monday, opening a potential new front in the war. In a letter to shippers, they threatened to attack any ships that load or discharge Saudi oil.
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US president Donald Trump said the Houthis had not yet shut the Bab el-Mandeb, the strait leading into the Red Sea, and threatened to act against them if they did.
“So far it hasn’t happened. Might happen, but we take care of things. If something like that happens, we take care of it,” Trump said.
But the Houthi announcement already appeared to be having an impact. Two tankers which had just loaded Saudi crude bound for China and India at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Yanbu made U-turns on Tuesday, heading towards the Suez Canal rather than out through the Bab el-Mandeb into the Indian Ocean.
“The developments represent the first confirmed changes to commercial tanker routing following the [Houthi] embargo and are likely to increase disruption to Saudi crude exports and regional shipping patterns,” British maritime risk management group Vanguard said on Tuesday.
With the war shutting the Strait of Hormuz leading out of the Gulf, the Red Sea has served as the main alternate route out for millions of barrels of Saudi oil a day, diverted by pipeline through Yanbu.
Fifty civilians have been killed and 500 wounded in the recent US strikes on Iran, a health ministry official said. Washington has reported three US soldiers killed in recent days in the region and says it is punishing Iran for their deaths.
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The United States and Iran have been testing the limits of escalation since the collapse this month of a weeks-old interim deal to halt fighting.
Washington has encouraged ships to use the southern lane through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran demands they use an alternative northern route near its coast instead, where it eventually aims to charge fees for transit.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday that Tehran had received a proposal from mediators for a 10-day ceasefire in efforts to salvage the interim deal, intended to pave the way to a lasting deal to end the war that began on February 28th with US-Israeli attacks on Iran. – Reuters
