Tankers with Saudi crude turn back as Houthis open new front in US-Iran war
This comes as the militant group announced a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia on Jul 20
- The Iran-backed Houthis control northern and western Yemen, including the coast at the mouth of the Red Sea.
PHOTO: REUTERS
[DUBAI] Two oil tankers carrying Saudi crude to Asia reversed course in the Red Sea on Tuesday (Jul 21) 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 Iran 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.
This opened a potential new front in the war, which has killed thousands of people across the Gulf since it began on Feb 28 with US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
In a letter to shippers, the Houthis threatened to attack any ships that load or discharge Saudi oil.
US President Donald Trump said the Houthis had not yet shut the Bab el-Mandeb, the “Gate of Tears” strait leading into the Red Sea, and threatened to act against them if they did.
“So far it hasn’t happened,” Trump said. “If something like that happens, we take care of it.”
The president also confirmed that 18 US service members have been killed so far, including four in Iranian attacks on US military bases in Jordan and Iraq over the last few days, in a war that is unpopular among Americans and others affected by surging global energy costs.
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 per day, diverted by pipeline through Yanbu.
Oil prices gained more than 2 per cent on Tuesday, with Brent crude hovering above US$91 a barrel and US petrol back over US$4 a gallon.
US strikes Southern, Western Iran
US Central Command said it had hit Iranian military command centres, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and air defence systems in its latest round of strikes, which have carried on nightly for more than a week and a half.
Explosions were heard around the city of Shiraz in southern Iran, state media said. Konarak and Chabahar on the southern coast and a civilian site outside the city of Abdanan in the west came under attack, media reports said.
On Tuesday, Trump renewed his threats to again attack Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz “pretty soon”, which he said in June 2025 had been “totally obliterated” after the US military bombed the facility, buried in a mountain range, that month.
Iran promised it would retaliate.
Fifty civilians have been killed and 500 wounded in the recent US strikes on Iran, a health ministry official said.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senators during a hearing that the war, which Congress has not authorised, had cost US$37.
5 billion so far, and he asked them to approve another US$70 billion in “supplemental” funds, in part to replenish depleted missile supplies.
Iran strikes across the region
The US and Iran have been testing the limits of escalation since the collapse this month of a weeks-old interim ceasefire agreement.
Iran launched renewed attacks on Tuesday across the Gulf, where recent strikes on desalination facilities have raised concerns about shortages in desert countries that depend almost entirely on removing salt from seawater for potable supplies.
Kuwait said it was responding to a drone and missile attack on Tuesday.
Kuwait has reported attacks that have damaged power generation in recent days at plants that also produce fresh water.
Iranian state media reported that Iranian forces also launched attacks on US military facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.
Tankers struck
The maritime security agency UK Maritime Trade Operations said on Tuesday that a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz reported being struck by a projectile, forcing its crew to abandon the vessel and board a lifeboat.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also said two oil tankers caught fire after explosions while attempting to transit the southern shipping lane of the strait.
The US has encouraged ships to use the southern lane. Iran demands they use an alternative northern route near its coast instead, where it eventually aims to charge fees for transit.
Just four commodity vessels crossed Hormuz on Monday, mostly using the northern shipping lane near Iran’s coast, down from seven the previous day, Kpler data showed.
Throughout the war, Saudi Arabia partially escaped the shipping disruption by piping oil to Yanbu on the Red Sea instead.
But a full closure of that alternative route by the Houthis could reduce global oil supply as it would leave most Saudi oil exports trapped.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday that Teheran had received a proposal from mediators for a 10-day ceasefire in efforts to salvage the interim ceasefire agreement signed in June, which replaced an earlier April ceasefire.
In a sign that diplomacy remains alive, Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni visited mediator Pakistan and asked Islamabad to continue its efforts. REUTERS
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