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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/08/17/how-houthi-militia-weaponized-shipping-red-sea/
Houthis Target Saudi Arabia
(Washington Post) Elise Labott - In July, Yemen's Houthi militia declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia. Saudi tankers in the Red Sea rerouted north to Yanbu and in August, Houthi attacks reached them there. Yanbu is the Saudi kingdom's insurance policy: the terminus of a pipeline that carries Saudi crude to world markets without ever touching the Strait of Hormuz. That route now carries 80% of the kingdom's 4.6 million barrels of daily exports, and Riyadh is working to link other Gulf oil producers to the same line. Gregory Johnsen, a nonresident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute, said he considers the Houthis "more of a junior partner" to Iran, rather than a proxy. Years of war built a self-sufficiency the rest of Iran's network never achieved: their own weapons production, command structures, and political relationships. Saudi Arabia fought the Houthis for nearly a decade, and criticism of the civilian toll helped end that war in 2022 with the group still standing. Saudi Arabia wants to finally break that leverage and strip away one of Iran's last functioning sources of regional power. Riyadh is quietly funding and pushing Yemen's fractured anti-Houthi forces toward a ground offensive, while at the same time assembling a multinational maritime coalition to secure passage through the Red Sea.