The Wall Street Journal article today kind of slanted this news to the public perception of events. I think we have to look beyond those and say that Iran is forcing Saudi Arabia to stop shipments of oil through the Red Sea. This has been contemplated for a number of years because Iran controls a lot of territory along the shipping routes for oil.
The Houthis have been firing at ships for a few months, but they were missing. On this, and a previous incident exactly like it, the rebels said they were shooting at Saudi military vessels and came close to commercial ships. We have to believe the same country that manages to acquire Iranian missiles and shoots several of them at Saudi refining and transport facilities wasn't trying to hit tankers.
Let's clarify something here that Iran and Saudi Arabia know. Oil is not a commodity sold to any single country. The receivers of oil need it for energy and they don't like doing without. That is one of the things that makes traffic in the Straits of Hormuz so important to both countries. If the Houthis start messing with that, it will be more than the Saudis and the US who are going to start thinking about protecting that area against disruption. Iran is going to find many countries are willing to defend their access to oil.
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