Israel is Ready to Answer on Probable Bab-el-Mandeb Blockade

Photo from Ukrinform – UATV

If Iran blocks the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, Israel will respond militarily, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a military parade in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

“I am convinced that it will find itself facing a determined international coalition to prevent this,” Netanyahu said. “This coalition would also include the State of Israel and all its arms.”

The Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. It’s located between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa.

According to United States’ data, every day, 4.8 million barrels of Israeli oil and oil products are transported through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.

The comments come after an incident last week in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait where Tehran-backed Houthis attacked two giant Saudi oil tankers carrying four million barrels of crude oil, causing Saudi Arabia to announce a temporary halt on oil shipments through the Strait.

The Houthi rebels in Yemen who attacked the Saudi oil tankers were supported by Iran. Iran and Saudi Arabia support different factions in the Yemen war waging on the banks of the strait.