Houthis want tankers to pay for Red Sea transit, Reuters reports

Houthis want tankers to pay for Bab-el-Mandeb passage

The Yemeni Houthi group put forward the proposal a week after announcing a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia, regional sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

On July 20, the Iran-backed Houthis declared a maritime embargo, opening a new front against the United States and its allies in the conflict with Iran while expanding attacks on tankers carrying oil and other goods beyond the Persian Gulf.

According to the sources, the Houthis want to impose fees on most traffic passing through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which links the southern Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.

They added that no timeline for implementing the plan has been announced.

Houthis consulted with Iran

In July, Houthi officials traveled to Iran to attend the funeral ceremony of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. During the visit, Iranian officials discussed the idea of introducing transit fees for ships passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, two regional officials told Reuters.

The move is intended to normalize the practice of collecting fees on international waterways and to increase pressure on the United States.

Chinese vessels would be exempt from the charges, and the Houthis supported that arrangement, the sources said.

Iranian advisers join the effort

Houthi officials returned home with Iranian advisers who will help establish a potential authority to regulate payments for passage through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, an Arab regional official said.

"The Houthis will try ​to gain access over the Red Sea, and they will try to charge ships if they do," Afrah al-Zouba, the internationally recognized Yemeni government's foreign minister, told Reuters.

Tehran also rejected Oman's proposal for joint regional management of the Strait of Hormuz, which would have included voluntary transit fees for vessels, a senior Iranian official said on Wednesday.

Strait blockade threatens the global economy

Closing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait would deprive Saudi Arabia of a critical alternative to the Strait of Hormuz and heighten concerns over disruptions to global oil supplies.

At least one Saudi oil tanker was attacked last week near the southern port of Jizan, close to Yemen. The Houthis claimed responsibility.

The militants were previously accused of charging some shipping agencies for transit through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in 2024. The payments were estimated at up to $180 million per month, although those figures have not been verified.

Earlier, it emerged that the Yemeni Houthis had made an exception for China, exempting Chinese vessels from their tanker blockade in the southern Red Sea.

US President Donald Trump also raised the issue of freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.