DUBAI/RIYADH, July 20 (Reuters): Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, a move that opens a new front against the United States in its war on Iran and widens the threat to global energy supplies and trade beyond the Gulf.
The Houthis made their announcement despite signs that Tehran and Washington want to resume diplomacy to halt a worsening cycle of attacks that has all but wrecked a fragile interim agreement signed last month.
Iran's Foreign Ministry said mediators had presented "proposals" to Tehran, signalling that diplomatic contacts remain active, but gave no details.
Oil prices rose briefly after the Houthi statement but later fell back as traders held out hope of a diplomatic breakthrough in the war.
Iran had been pressing the Houthis to close the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea if the U.S. continued to attack Iranian power infrastructure.
The full closure of the Bab el-Mandeb strait would reduce global oil supply by 7% as it would leave most of Saudi oil exports unable to leave the region.
In their statement, the Houthis' armed forces said they were declaring "a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of 'an eye for an eye', effective immediately" in response to what they called "an unjust and oppressive siege" imposed on Yemen by the Saudis.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday that Tehran had received a proposal from mediators for a 10-day ceasefire in efforts to salvage the interim deal, intended to pave the way to a lasting agreement to end the war that began on February 28 with U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran.
Neither the ministry nor the official who spoke to Reuters gave any details on the putative ceasefire discussions.
Two Pakistani government sources said separately that Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni had asked Pakistan to resume its mediation role in the conflict.
The diplomatic push followed another night of US strikes on Iranian cities and attacks by Iran's Revolutionary Guards on US military assets across the region.
US President Donald Trump, under mounting political pressure at home over rising gasoline prices, defended the latest strikes on Iran as honoring the deaths of up to three American service members in recent Iranian attacks.
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