Israel will help open narrow strait in Red Sea if Iranian closes it

Israel will join a coalition of countries to open the narrow Bab al-Mandab Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea if the Iranians try to close it, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, on the heels of an attack last week on two Saudi oil tankers sailing through the narrow waterway.

“At the beginning of the week we were witness to a sharp clash between Iran’s proxies that tried to sabotage international shipping in the strait at the mouth of the Red Sea,” Netanyahu said at a graduation ceremony for naval officers at a naval base in Haifa.

 “If Iran tries to block the Bab al-Mandab waterway, I am convinced that it will find itself against an international coalition determined to prevent that. This coalition will include the State of Israel and all of its branches.”

Last Wednesday, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis attacked two Saudi tankers sailing through the waterway, with one of the ships suffering minimal damage. A day later Saudi Arabia announced it was suspending oil shipments through the strait, sending jitters through the world’s oil markets.

The Bab al-Mandab Strait links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean and is a critical passageway for oil to the West and Asia. At its narrowest point, it is only 29 kilometers wide between Yemen on the eastern side and Djibouti and Eritrea on the west. Blocking the waterway would halt shipment of about 4.8 million barrels per day of crude oil and refined petroleum products.