Guided by Iran, Houthis may start charging for passage through Red Sea strait

Yemen’s Houthi group is considering imposing fees on commercial ships sailing through the southern Red Sea, a week after declaring a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, regional sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The Iran-aligned Houthis on July 20 declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia, opening a new front against the US and its allies in the Iran war and expanding attacks on tankers carrying global energy and other supplies to waters beyond the Gulf.

The Houthis were looking into imposing fees on most traffic through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb gateway, which links the southern Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, the sources say. No timeframe was given at this stage for implementation, they added.

The Houthis’ media office did not respond to a request for comment.

Houthi officials traveled to Iran in July for the funeral ceremony of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, where Iranian counterparts discussed with them the issue of imposing fees on Bab el-Mandeb transits, two regional officials briefed by Tehran tell Reuters.

The objectives of such a move would be to normalize the practice of imposing fees on international waterways and increase pressure on the United States, the sources say. Chinese ships would be exempted from such fees and the Houthis were supportive of the arrangement, they add.

Houthi officials who returned by plane from Tehran were accompanied by Iranian advisers who were on the ground to guide them on setting up a potential authority that will regulate fees through the Bab el-Mandeb, an Arab official in the region says.

“The Houthis will try to gain access over the Red Sea and they will try to charge ships if they do,” Afrah al-Zouba, foreign minister-designate with Yemen’s internationally recognized government, tells Reuters.

Such a move would face strong opposition from Gulf and European countries, although overstretched international naval forces are currently unable to provide sufficient protection for merchant shipping and there is little political appetite to change that, two Western diplomats say.