Two tankers burned off the Saudi coast the same night Iraq’s prime minister sat down in Tehran to plead for peace, and Washington’s answer to Iran’s own eye-for-an-eye threat was blunter still: a head for an eye.
Table of Contents
- The Tankers That Were Hit
- Why Bab el-Mandeb Is a Second Chokepoint
- Lloyd’s “Double Whammy”
- Trump’s Threat and the Proxy Framing
- Rubio’s “Head for an Eye”
- Iraq’s Prime Minister in Tehran
- The Same Night, Three More Countries Hit
- A Pattern the Houthis Have Used Before
- Law and Legal Implications
- Does Yanbu Hold as Saudi Arabia’s Fallback
The Tankers That Were Hit
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said Thursday, July 23, 2026, that they had attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, potentially opening a new front in the war even as the US military conducted a 12th consecutive night of strikes against Iran. The Houthis’ SABA news agency identified the vessels as the Encelia and the Layla, saying the strikes caused fires on both with no reported casualties. The Saudi Press Agency confirmed a fire aboard the Encelia overnight but did not mention the Layla. The UK Maritime Trade Operations Center said it received a report of a tanker struck by an unknown projectile roughly 130 kilometers southwest of Al Shuqaiq, Saudi Arabia.
Why Bab el-Mandeb Is a Second Chokepoint
The strike marked the Houthis’ first reported attack on a vessel since they announced a blockade of Saudi-linked shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait earlier in the week, in retaliation for a Saudi blockade on Yemen and a recent attack on Sanaa’s international airport. Bab el-Mandeb, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and carries roughly 12% of world trade, including a quarter of global container traffic moving between Europe and Asia via Egypt’s Suez Canal, giving the Houthis leverage over a second major artery alongside the Strait of Hormuz.
Lloyd’s “Double Whammy”
Maritime data and analysis firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence said the Houthi attacks put at risk oil shipments from Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port on the Red Sea, describing the threat as a double whammy layered on top of the disruption already affecting the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia has diverted millions of barrels a day of oil exports to Yanbu via an overland pipeline specifically because the war has bottled up the Persian Gulf route, making Yanbu the kingdom’s primary fallback, a fallback Lloyd’s said the Houthi threats now raise questions about the viability of.
Trump’s Threat and the Proxy Framing
President Trump threatened major military punishment against the Houthis if their attacks on ships continued, writing on social media that if they struck again the US would hold Iran responsible on the basis that the Houthis are a surrogate or proxy of Tehran, promising major military punishment would be inflicted upon both Iran and the Houthis themselves. The framing directly links any future Houthi action to consequences for Iran specifically, rather than treating the Houthis as an independent actor.
Rubio’s “Head for an Eye”
The war of words escalated on both sides. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran would adopt an eye-for-an-eye policy in response to US strikes against its infrastructure. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio retorted that Trump’s actual policy amounted to a head for an eye, telling reporters while traveling in the Philippines for a regional summit that the price will continue to get higher every single night until Iran comes to its senses.
Iraq’s Prime Minister in Tehran
Amid the escalation, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi traveled to Tehran on Thursday to call for peace and dialogue, according to a spokesperson, having met with Trump in Washington earlier the same month. Iraq’s position, maintaining close ties to both the US and Iran, places it among a small group of actors, alongside Pakistan and Türkiye, that an unnamed Arab diplomat said continue pushing for de-escalation even as Gulf states grow increasingly pessimistic about finding an actual off-ramp.
The Same Night, Three More Countries Hit
The tanker strikes coincided with a broader night of regional attacks. Iranian state media reported US missiles struck locations near Ahvaz, Ramshir, and Andimeshk in western Iran, and that two people were killed in a US missile strike on the town of Shalamcheh near the Iraqi border. Jordan’s military said it intercepted three missiles early Thursday, with a fourth falling in an empty area, after intercepting six drones the previous night. Bahrain’s Interior Ministry sounded sirens and urged residents to remain calm. Kuwait’s military said drones attacked its border crossing with Iraq, causing damage but no casualties, an attack Daily Sabah’s reporting suggested may have been retaliation for the US strike on the Iran-Iraq border crossing the same night.
A Pattern the Houthis Have Used Before
The Houthis describe their current campaign as a blockade specifically targeting Saudi Arabia, but wire reporting noted that during their earlier blockade of Israel at the height of the Gaza war, the group targeted many vessels with little or no actual connection to that conflict, disrupting global trade well beyond its stated target. That precedent suggests the current Saudi-focused blockade could similarly expand to affect shipping with no direct link to Saudi Arabia specifically.
Law and Legal Implications
US Central Command has framed its own strikes as designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters, a stated rationale under the law of armed conflict aimed at protecting freedom of navigation, the same principle Washington has invoked against Iran’s separate claim of a right to manage traffic and charge fees through the Strait of Hormuz. The Houthis’ documented pattern of striking vessels unconnected to their stated blockade target during the earlier Israel blockade raises the same international humanitarian law concerns around indiscriminate attacks on civilian shipping that apply broadly across this conflict’s maritime dimension.
Does Yanbu Hold as Saudi Arabia’s Fallback
It remains unclear whether Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu pipeline route will remain viable if Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping continue or escalate, a question Lloyd’s List Intelligence has explicitly flagged as unresolved. Whether Trump’s threatened major military punishment will actually be carried out against the Houthis and Iran jointly, as opposed to remaining rhetorical, is not yet known. The diplomatic efforts by Iraq, Pakistan, and Türkiye toward de-escalation have not yet produced any confirmed breakthrough, and the Arab diplomat’s assessment of growing Gulf pessimism suggests expectations for a near-term resolution remain low. Forensic Times continues to monitor Houthi shipping attacks, US Central Command strike reporting, and regional diplomatic efforts toward de-escalation.
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