Vessels transit the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the coast of southern Yemen on July 25, 2026.(AFP)
Saudi Arabia has announced it had set up a maritime defense alliance to secure navigation around the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, saying that Türkiye is among the countries supporting the initiative.
The move comes after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis said last week they were imposing a maritime embargo on Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, and claimed attacks targeting Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea and oil infrastructure in the kingdom.
The narrow maritime artery has been a critical waterway for delivering vast quantities of Saudi crude to the international market, after energy exports from the Gulf were largely choked off the U.S.-Iranian standoff in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Saudi defense ministry issued a joint statement on behalf of the 14 countries in the alliance: Türkiye, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The ministry said the alliance was “aimed at enhancing maritime security, safeguarding freedom of navigation, securing international trade routes and energy supply lines and protecting shared maritime interests in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.”
The ministry said it had invited 51 countries and organizations to a meeting about the alliance in Riyadh on July 30.
It said representatives of 43 countries and an EU delegation attended, of which 14 countries confirmed their support while others were in the process of doing so.
Saudi Arabia and the Houthis traded fire earlier this month, for the first time in years, threatening a 2022 truce that has held despite expiring.
Saudi forces have faced attacks from both Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthi rebels as they impose a Red Sea blockade on Saudi ships and from pro-Iran militias in Iraq targeting its energy facilities.
Early on July 29, the kingdom struck back. Joint U.S.-Saudi strikes in Iraq killed 20, according to the alliance of former paramilitary groups and factions whose bases were targeted.
