Saudi Arabia forms a new naval coalition for the Red Sea as Bab el-Mandeb transits fall by a fifth

Saudi Arabia's defence ministry said the kingdom is forming a military coalition to protect shipping in the Red Sea. According to a New York Times report circulated on Saturday 1 August 2026, 14 countries including Türkiye, Egypt, Pakistan and Nigeria declared their support for the coalition after a meeting held in Riyadh on Thursday 30 July. Saudi Arabia has invited roughly 50 countries to join and will lead the coalition itself.

Under the joint statement of the 14 countries, the coalition will be headquartered in Saudi Arabia and members will cooperate on intelligence sharing, training exercises and naval operations. The statement describes the effort as "purely defensive and not directed against any particular country". It is not yet clear how the coalition will differ from the European Union's Operation Aspides. Saudi Arabia has also invited European countries and the United States to join.

The background to the move is the naval blockade of Saudi ships announced by Yemen's Ansarullah on 20 July. According to data from Windward, a maritime data agency, the number of vessels transiting the Bab el-Mandeb strait has fallen by about one fifth since that announcement. The Red Sea had become a more critical route for Persian Gulf oil exports after the disruption at the Strait of Hormuz, and any further narrowing of this second chokepoint feeds directly into freight rates, insurance premiums and ultimately global oil prices.