Yemen may close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to the US and Israel, said senior Yemeni military commander Abed al-Tawr, according to Iranian television channel Press TV.
The country announced that it would intervene in the Middle East war on Iran's side.
„Once the decision to intervene is made, the first measure could be to officially declare a naval blockade against the United States and the Zionist regime. In this way, commercial ships and warships, including aircraft carriers, heading towards US territory and the occupied territories could be stopped,“ he said.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a strategically important shipping route between the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen) and northeastern Africa (Djibouti and Eritrea). The strait connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden in the Arabian Sea. About 12% of all seaborne oil trade and 8% of the world's liquefied natural gas (LNG) pass through the strait.