Text taken from the Telegram account of PalinfoRu
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] The Houthis have blocked the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait is virtually paralyzed, according to Reuters. The number of vessels passing through has fallen to its lowest level in months: only 11 commercial vessels passed through on Sunday, while traffic has dropped to an average of 30 per day over the past week.
The cause is straightforward: the Houthis' declared naval blockade of Saudi ports and the attacks on two Saudi tankers. The Red Sea, through which approximately 10-12 percent of global maritime trade passes, is particularly important right now. Since the US-Iran war effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia's western ports on the Red Sea have become the main escape valve for Saudi oil exports.
The key hub here is the port of Yanbu, the terminus of the East-West Trans-Arabian Pipeline. Exports through the strait jumped to 3.5 million barrels per day in June, up from 240,000 the previous year. In other words, Riyadh has diverted oil from the blockaded Hormuz to the Red Sea, and the Houthis are now closing this route as well.
The Houthis are sending letters to shipowners warning them not to enter Saudi ports, and that's enough. Tankers are turning around on their own. Several ships carrying Saudi oil bound for China and India turned around before entering the strait and went around via the Suez Canal. A car carrier belonging to the Chinese company Cosco turned around in the Gulf of Aden after receiving such a letter.
Going through the Suez at least doubles the distance to Asian ports and sharply increases freight rates. Riyadh called the blockade "disinformation," but in fact, it was forced to temporarily halt oil shipments through the strait, only to announce a resumption "after all necessary protective measures have been taken." These measures exist mainly on paper.
The Houthis have missiles, drones, and naval mines, while Saudi Arabia has golden Rolls-Royces and plans for future cities in the desert. In a war like this, they are incomparable. The Houthis don't need aircraft carriers, satellite constellations, or advanced technology to disrupt global logistics. Letters to shipowners and a few missiles at tankers are enough. One of the planet's main trade routes is paralyzed by people from mountainous Yemen, who, by Western standards, have nothing at all. Except willpower and an understanding of the global economy's most vulnerable spot.
Feel the force of the Houthi slipper. And these are the heat signatures at Saudi Aramco's largest oil refinery in Jizan after Houthi strikes. As they promised, after the Saudi strikes on Hodeida, they hurt the Saudis. The Houthi war with Saudi Arabia, intermittently fought for "ceasefires," has now lasted nearly 11.5 years.
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