- Iran threatens to block Bab al-Mandeb Strait if US or Israel attack its islands, including Kharg
- Bab al-Mandeb handles about 12% of global seaborne oil, linking the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden
- Iran may open new fronts in response to attacks on its islands or naval movements in regional waters
Iran has threatened to block the Bab al-Mandeb Strait-- a narrow waterway that controls sea traffic toward the Suez Canal-- if the United States and Israel escalate the war by attacking its islands, including Kharg. Tehran already has the Strait of Hormuz-- through which a fifth of the world's oil is normally shipped-- in a chokehold. Any disruption at Bab al-Mandeb could further the economic impact of the conflict in the Middle East.
About 12 per cent of global seaborne oil passes through the passageway connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, making it the world's fourth-largest shipping route. It is located southwest of Yemen, where the Iran-backed Houthis are based.
"If the enemy wants to take action on land in the Iranian islands or anywhere else in our lands or to inflict costs on Iran with naval movements in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman," Iran's Tasnim News Agency reported, citing Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sources.
"We will open other fronts for them as a surprise so that their action will not only be of no benefit to them but will also double their costs," sources added.
Houthis To Enter War
Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency has reported that the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen would also join the ongoing fight against the US and Israeli forces to help Tehran take control of the Bab al-Mandeb, which is located at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula near Yemen.
According to the source quoted by Tasnim, controlling the strait becomes necessary to further "discipline" the US and Israeli forces. It claimed that not only does Iran have the capability to generate a "credible threat" in the waterway, but the "heroic forces" of Ansarullah, or the Houthi movement, are also "fully prepared to play a skillful role."
Iran supports and arms the Houthi rebel group in Yemen, which greatly reduced Red Sea traffic in October 2023 when it began attacking vessels in retaliation for Israel's bombardment of Gaza.
Iran's Warning
Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has also warned that Tehran has intelligence indicating "enemies" were preparing to seize one of Iran's islands, possibly Kharg, with support from a regional country.
"Our forces are monitoring all enemy movements, and if they take any step, all vital infrastructure of that regional state will be targeted with continuous, relentless attacks," Ghalibaf said in a post on X but without naming the state.
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