Iran Ally Joins War with Blockade of Yet Another Global Trade Chokepoint

With global energy markets still in disarray over rival U.S. and Iranian blockades impacting the Strait of Hormuz, a key Iran ally is threatening to reopen one of the world’s most disruptive shipping crises.

Yemen‘s Ansar Allah movement, better known as the Houthis, announced Monday a “total ban” on Israeli ships transiting the Red Sea. This raises fears of renewed turmoil for global trade as Iran and Israel exchange fresh strikes despite ongoing U.S.-led diplomatic efforts.

The threat carries significant economic implications. During the Houthis’ previous campaign against commercial shipping, traffic through Egypt’s Suez Canal fell by roughly two-thirds, forcing many vessels onto longer and costlier routes around southern Africa.

That campaign lasted roughly two years, from the beginning of the war in Gaza in October 2023 to the Israel-Hamas ceasefire reached in October of last year.

But the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has reactivated the Islamic Republic’s Axis of Resistance coalition, with the Lebanese Hezbollah movement reentering the fight and Ansar Allah resuming long-range strikes against Israel.

The Yemeni group now appears poised to take the campaign a step further in stated solidarity with its allies as Iran and Israel exchanged fresh strikes in recent days despite a U.S. push for a diplomatic settlement.

“Yemen stands firmly against Israeli aggression, which has not respected the understandings in Lebanon or Gaza, and the Americans give it the green light to do so,” an Ansar Allah source told Newsweek. “We are part of the unity of the arenas, which will be the ideal solution to put an end to Israeli debauchery.

“The world must understand that Israel is posing a major challenge to the global economy by constantly creating problems in our region,” the source said.

“The siege that has been unjustly imposed on our country during the past years, as well as on Iran and the rest of the resistance arenas, must stop.

“We will not allow the suffering of our people to continue because of this unjust siege, and we will fight for the sake of God and to lift the suffering from our oppressed people.”

Peace Disrupted

The latest flare-up in Iran-Israel clashes erupted Sunday when Iran launched a salvo of missiles in response to Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire on April 8, beginning negotiations with Iran that continue despite the two sides remaining at odds on key issues. Among them, Iranian officials have insisted that Lebanon be included in any cessation of hostilities.

As U.S.-Iran talks progressed last month, however, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an intensification of operations in Lebanon.

He has sought to inflict a lasting defeat against Hezbollah, calling for its disarmament at the hands of the Lebanese government, which has accused both Iran and Israel of dragging the country into the war.

Reports surfaced of a heated exchanged between Trump and Netanyahu in which the U.S. leader later confirmed demanding Israel not proceed with planned strikes on alleged Hezbollah positions in Beirut.

After the IDF went on to conduct attacks on the Lebanese capital in stated retaliation for ongoing Hezbollah operations, Iran fired its first round of missiles against Israel since the beginning of the two-month truce.

Trump called on the Israeli premier not to retaliate during an interview with Axios on Sunday. Israel conducted strikes Monday against targets in Tehran and other parts of Iran, with the IDF claiming attacks against air defense systems, a petrochemical complex allegedly involved in weapons production and other military sites, to which Iran responded with a new round of missile attacks.

Ansar Allah also announced a strike against “sensitive military targets” in Tel Aviv on Monday. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the attack had been intercepted.

Newsweek has reached out to the IDF for comment.

In a Truth Social post Monday, Trump wrote that “Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting.'” Hours later, the Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said it would cease operations against Israel.

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The Costs of Another Front

Should Ansar Allah reimpose an effective blockade of the Red Sea and nearby waters, the effect could be substantial amid an already turbulent state of affairs for international trade.

Estimates indicate transiting around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope rather than through Egypt’s Suez Canal between the Red and Mediterranean Seas added up to $1 million in additional costs per journey for larger tankers, as well as weeks of additional travel time.

The price of a new blockade could prove even higher as oil and gas shipment costs have skyrocketed due to Iran-imposed transit fees in the Strait of Hormuz, inflated insurance premiums and an overall decline in traffic through one of the world’s most important energy trade choke-points. Shipments will likely be become even more scarce in the event of a return to large-scale conflict.

The blowback has put pressure on the White House as Iran vows to withstand the crippling effects of a U.S. naval blockade on its own ports.

Trump had also previously sought to break Ansar Allah’s stronghold on the Red Sea through weekslong intensification of U.S. strikes last year that ultimately ended in a ceasefire. The group is believed to retain a sizable arsenal of weapons as well as control of around a third of Yemen and nearly 80 percent of its population, including the capital, Sanaa, seized amid civil war in early 2015.

Yemen’s internationally recognized government, supported by Saudi Arabia, has not attempted any major offensives against Ansar Allah since reaching a U.N.-brokered ceasefire in April 2021, instead having focused most recently on dismantling a southern separatist faction backed by the United Arab Emirates earlier this year.

Prior to the truce in Yemen, Ansar Allah had also conducted missile and drone strikes against Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Both countries, as well as the other four Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have since found themselves under direct attack from Iran in the midst of the U.S.-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic, fueling further calls for de-escalation from the region.

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This story was originally published June 8, 2026 at 9:08 AM.