Saudi Arabia on Thursday held the first planning session for its proposed Red Sea maritime defense coalition which would secure the vital trading passage through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Gulf of Aden against piracy and terrorism, primarily from the Iran-backed Houthi separatists of Yemen.
The Saudi Defense Ministry said representatives from 43 nations attended Thursday’s meeting in Riyadh. Fourteen of them issued a joint statement that said they were willing to consider “joint maritime operations” in the Red Sea, including training, intelligence-sharing, and military exercises.
Saudi Arabia is particularly concerned about the safety of Red Sea shipping, and with good reason. The kingdom shifted much of its seaborne oil to Red Sea ports to work around Iran’s terrorist blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, only to have Iran’s proxies in Yemen announce a “maritime ban” on Saudi tankers in the Red Sea on July 20.
The Houthis have since attacked several Saudi civilian vessels, warned international shipping firms that any ship carrying Saudi oil could be attacked, and floated the possibility of setting up an extortion racket in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, much as Iran hopes to squeeze “fees” out of ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Saudis have also tried sending oil through the Suez Canal in Egypt, a much slower route requiring smaller oil tankers, but a drone attack on a U.S.-owned gas tanker in the Suez port of Damietta on Wednesday suggested that route may not be safe, either.
Saudi Arabia led a multi-national effort to intervene against the Houthis in the Yemeni civil war from 2015 until 2022 when a ceasefire went into effect. The Houthis have since resumed their effort to conquer the rest of Yemen by force, and the Saudis have acted to prevent Iran from extending its influence in Yemen.
Saudi diplomats told the leftist newspaper New York Times (NYT) on Thursday that the Red Sea maritime coalition is a serious proposal and Riyadh hopes to have firm commitments from other members soon. Those members include both Arab and African nations with an interest in the Red Sea trade, including Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Somalia, and Nigeria.
Two important holdouts from the coalition are reportedly Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Oman has sought to present itself as a neutral mediator between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, and between the U.S. and Iran. The UAE has some sharp disagreements with Saudi Arabia on the subject of Yemen.
Qatar’s Al Jazeera News said the 14 nations that issued the joint statement on Thursday are all but locked in for the alliance, and the United States may join as well.
The European Union, which is already running a Red Sea security mission called Operation Aspides, sent a delegation to the meeting in Riyadh on Thursday.
Al Jazeera reported that Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman spoke with both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Thursday to assure them Saudi Arabia is prepared to “defend itself” and does not require direct U.S. military assistance to deal with the Houthis.