Israel will help break any blockade that Iran tries to enforce in a vital shipping lane that passes between the Red Sea and the open ocean, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday.
“If Iran tries to block the Straits of Bab al-Mandab, it will find itself facing an international coalition determined to prevent it from doing so, and this coalition will also include the State of Israel and all its arms,” Netanyahu told an audience of graduating naval officers, per Haaretz.
That declaration makes the threat of military cooperation between Israel and Saudi Arabia more explicit, despite the fact that the Jewish state and the Sunni Arab power do not have formal diplomatic relations. Both see Shia Iran as a major regional threat, however, and Netanyahu issued his warning in response to an Iranian-backed attack on Saudi vessels.
“Earlier this week, we witnessed a sharp clash with Iran’s satellites who tried to sabotage international shipping in the Straits at the mouth of the Red Sea,” he noted.
Netanyahu’s warning coincides with reports of Iranian forces amassing in the Straits of Hormuz, another key shipping lane that sits on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula from the Straits of Bab al-Mandab. The regime appears to be preparing for a major military exercise, as renewed U.S. sanctions are scheduled to take effect on August 6.
“We are aware of the increase in Iranian naval operations within the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman,” Captain William Urban, chief spokesman for U.S. Central Command, told CNN. “We are monitoring it closely, and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways.”
Those moves come as Iranian-backed forces in Yemen, who attacked Saudi vessels last month in the course of the Yemeni civil war, announced a “unilateral halt” to those operations.
“The unilateral halt in naval military operations will be for a limited time period and could be extended and include all fronts if this move is reciprocated by the leadership of the [Saudi-led] coalition,” Supreme Revolutionary Committee head Mohammed Ali al-Houthi said Tuesday, per Iranian state-run media.
Iran threatened to close the Straits of Hormuz in response to the Trump administration’s plan to sanction most countries or entities that purchase Iranian oil, as part of the U.S. effort to isolate the regime economically. But the August 6 sanctions “will include targeting Iran’s automotive sector, trade in gold, and other key metals,” State Department director of policy planning Brian Hook told reporters in July. The energy sanctions come into full force in November.
“I would like to emphasize: the Israeli military is ready to respond simultaneously on two fronts, and also on the Red Sea,” Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said during the graduation ceremony. “Only in that case we would be less selective and the harm to our enemies would be greater. I hope they take that into account.”
