Pakistan Condemns Houthi Threats Against Saudi Arabia and Vows to Defend Its Red Sea Shipping

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Pakistan has unequivocally condemned the continued threats issued by the Houthi militia against Saudi Arabia and commercial vessels operating in the Red Sea, warning that the group’s escalating campaign endangers regional security and the arteries of global trade. In a statement released on Wednesday, 22 July 2026, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad said the threats undermine freedom of navigation, challenge the rules-based maritime order and jeopardise the uninterrupted flow of international commerce.

The Foreign Office described threats against commercial shipping and against trade with Saudi Arabia as unacceptable and a violation of established principles of international law, adding that Islamabad was particularly concerned by reports of threats directed at vessels engaged in lawful commercial trade with the kingdom.

Islamabad went further than routine diplomatic censure. The statement affirmed that any hostile act against Pakistani-flagged vessels or Pakistani maritime interests would be regarded as a grave threat to the country’s national security and sovereign interests, and that Pakistan reserves the right, consistent with the United Nations Charter, to take all necessary measures, including the lawful use of force in self-defence, to protect its maritime assets.

The Foreign Office also voiced deep concern over what it called attempts to drag Saudi Arabia into the wider Middle East conflict, reiterating Pakistan’s unwavering support for the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the kingdom. While stressing its commitment to dialogue and regional de-escalation, Islamabad urged all parties to respect international law and to ensure the safety of international maritime shipping.

The condemnation followed the Houthi movement’s declaration on Monday of a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, which the group said was effective immediately and based on the equation of an eye for an eye. The Houthis, who seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa in 2014, cast the embargo as a response to what they describe as an unjust siege imposed on Yemen’s ports and airports for nearly twelve years, a characterisation Riyadh rejects.

The immediate trigger was an attack on Sanaa International Airport earlier this month. The Houthis blamed Saudi Arabia for the strike, although Yemen’s internationally recognised government said its own forces had carried it out to prevent an Iranian aircraft from landing in the capital. The group retaliated by firing ballistic missiles at Abha International Airport in southern Saudi Arabia, a salvo the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted. The exchange pierced roughly four years of fragile calm that had held since a temporary truce, and it followed renewed fighting between Houthi and government forces around the port city of Hodeidah.

The confrontation is unfolding against an already combustible regional backdrop. The United States has been striking targets in Iran amid a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed to traffic since the war began in late February and has removed a significant share of global oil supply from the market.

Attention has now turned to the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea that separates Yemen from Djibouti and Eritrea. Just twenty-nine kilometres wide at its narrowest point, the strait carried about 7.4 million barrels of oil per day in June, roughly seven percent of global output, according to data from the analytics firm Kpler.

The route has become even more critical for Saudi Arabia since Hormuz closed. The kingdom has rerouted crude through its East-West pipeline, which runs more than 1,200 kilometres from the Abqaiq oil complex to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, and shipments from Yanbu have averaged about four million barrels per day in recent weeks, more than four times last year’s level. A Houthi blockade of Saudi ports strikes directly at that workaround, and reports of missile and drone attacks on Saudi tankers have already prompted some loaded vessels to turn back. Pakistan’s prime minister separately condemned the attacks on Saudi oil tankers in a telephone call with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and assured Riyadh of Islamabad’s full support.

Analysts caution that the announcement alone carries economic weight. Mohammed Albasha, a Yemeni analyst who founded the Washington-based risk advisory Basha Report, noted that uncertainty over whether the Houthis will move from threats to direct action is itself enough to disrupt shipping schedules and insurance calculations for vessels calling at Saudi ports.

Pakistan’s stake in the crisis is far from abstract. The country’s economy depends heavily on seaborne trade, and its most important export markets and energy suppliers lie across the Arabian Sea in the Gulf. Millions of Pakistani workers live in Saudi Arabia and neighbouring states, and their remittances are a pillar of the national economy, giving Islamabad a direct interest in preventing a wider maritime war.

The escalation also carries grim implications for Yemen itself, where aid agencies estimate that some 4.5 million people remain displaced and where recurring outbreaks of cholera and measles have strained a shattered health system. Humanitarian operations depend on secure maritime and overland corridors, and relief officials have long warned that renewed fighting around Red Sea ports would put deliveries of food, fuel and medicine at risk.

For now, Islamabad has aligned itself firmly with Riyadh while leaving the door open to diplomacy. Whether the Houthis translate their declared blockade into sustained attacks, and whether international pressure can restrain a conflict now entangled with the war between the United States and Iran, will determine if the Red Sea remains a viable artery for world trade in the weeks ahead.