July 21 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia on Monday condemned what it described as allegations by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis that the kingdom was besieging the Yemeni people, after the group announced it would impose a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis said on Monday they would impose a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, opening a potential new front against the United States in its war with Iran and raising the threat to global energy supplies and trade beyond the Gulf.
In their statement, the Houthis’ armed forces said they were declaring “a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of ‘an eye for an eye’, effective immediately” in response to what they called “an unjust and oppressive siege” imposed on Yemen by the Saudis.
The Saudi foreign ministry condemned allegations by the Houthi military spokesperson that the kingdom was besieging Yemen and imposing a maritime blockade. Saudi would take “all necessary measures” to protect its ships, the ministry said in a statement.
Yemen has been mired in civil war for more than a decade since the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention in 2015 in support of the internationally recognised government.
The conflict has since evolved into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, leaving the country divided between a Saudi-backed government in Aden and a Houthi administration in Sanaa.
Cargo ships and other vessels have regularly arrived at the port of Houthi-controlled Hodeidah, including in recent weeks, delivering food fuel and other goods, according to shipping data.
(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din, Ahmed Tolba and Enas Alashray; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
