Saudi Arabia Launches a 14-Nation Naval Alliance to Guard the Red Sea After the Houthi Blockade

Saudi Arabia announced on Thursday the creation of a multinational maritime defense alliance to protect shipping through the Red Sea, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden, moving to secure a corridor that Yemen's Houthi fighters have turned into one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the world.

The Saudi Ministry of Defence said military representatives from 43 of the 51 countries invited attended the founding meeting in Riyadh. Fourteen signed on: Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan, Djibouti, Somalia, Bangladesh, Yemen, Sudan and the Comoros. Saudi Arabia will serve as the founding and leading state and will host the alliance's headquarters. Members committed to sharing intelligence and operational planning and to conducting joint exercises and maritime operations. The ministry described the pact as "purely defensive in nature" and said it "does not target any state."

Two absences stood out. The United Arab Emirates and Oman, both with direct commercial and security exposure to the same waterways, did not sign. The UAE operates ports and logistics networks up and down the corridor; Oman has spent the war maintaining channels to Tehran and has consistently declined to join structures that could read as anti-Iranian, however the announcement is worded.

The trigger was the Houthi campaign against Saudi shipping. Last week the group declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia, threatening traffic carrying a substantial share of the world's oil. Houthi missiles set Saudi Aramco's Jizan refinery ablaze, and two Saudi oil tankers were struck in the Red Sea, sending Brent crude above $100 a barrel. With the Strait of Hormuz already disrupted by the war with Iran, the Red Sea route had been the alternative for cargo rerouted out of the Gulf, which is precisely why it became a target.

The commercial stakes are hard to overstate. Bab el-Mandeb is the chokepoint connecting the Suez Canal to the Indian Ocean, and rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope adds roughly two weeks and substantial fuel cost to a voyage between Asia and Europe. Insurers have repriced the route repeatedly since the attacks began, and each repricing shows up eventually in consumer goods.

Whether a 14-nation coalition can accomplish what naval task forces have not is an open question. Escort operations require warships, surveillance aircraft and a command structure, and several signatories — Somalia, Sudan, the Comoros — bring geography rather than hulls. The announcement did not specify force contributions, a headquarters location or a start date for operations, and made no mention of a U.S. role.