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A pair of tankers carrying Saudi Arabian oil reportedly turned around in the Red Sea on Tuesday, after Yemen’s Houthi rebels announced a “maritime embargo” on the Middle Eastern country.
The tankers, headed for China and India, changed direction toward the Suez Canal instead of traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb into the Indian Ocean, Reuters reported.
Ships have transited the Red Sea amid the Iranian military’s continued restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Those restrictions, which are ongoing amid the U.S. and Iran resuming military hostilities, have led to the price of Brent crude oil surpassing $94 per barrel as of Wednesday morning.
On Monday, the Iranian-backed Houthis unveiled its embargo of Saudi ships “based on the equation of ‘an eye for an eye’, effective immediately.”
A day later, President Trump said the U.S. “will take care of things” if the Houthis go through with the embargo.
“If something like that happens, we take care of it. You know, we’ve done that with the Houthis before, and we haven’t heard from them in a while since we did what we did originally,” Trump said in the Oval Office alongside Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, referring to a U.S. military campaign against the terrorist group last year.
Between March and May 2025, the president authorized strikes against the Houthis in response to the Yemeni group’s attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Trump said Tuesday the operation equated to “about 45 days of very powerful action” against the group.
The Houthis announced the latest blockade after it blamed Saudi Arabia for a strike against the Sanaa airport in Yemen’s north, controlled by the Houthis. The internationally recognized and Saudi-backed Yemeni government in the south, though, claimed responsibility for the strike.
In Iran, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) wrapped up its 11th consecutive night. of strikes on Tuesday. Centcom said it targeted military operations centers, maritime capabilities, aircraft hangars, drone storage facilities and military logistics infrastructure “to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Trump on Wednesday also repeated his threat to authorize strikes against Iranian civilian infrastructure, a war crime under international law, if the Islamic Republic continues to target vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Since July 6, Iranian forces have attacked at least 12 ships in the waterway, according to the International Maritime Organization.
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