The Red Sea coalition is to be headquartered in Riyadh, with Egypt, Djibouti and Sudan agreeing to join

Al Jazeera reported in a detailed piece on Thursday, 30 July 2026 (8 Mordad 1405), that the international coalition Saudi Arabia is assembling to protect Red Sea shipping is to be headquartered in Riyadh and, according to reports, could be unveiled as early as that same Thursday. Those details go beyond Reuters' initial report on Wednesday, 29 July, which had only said consultations on forming a coalition were under way.

According to the report, the United States, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkiye, Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan, along with a number of European countries including Germany, France and Italy, have been invited to join. The news website Al-Monitor, citing US officials, reported that at least three Red Sea littoral states, Egypt, Djibouti and Sudan, have agreed to join, and that Riyadh has set a deadline for around 50 countries to confirm their participation. The United States has not yet confirmed that it will join.

The route matters for energy markets because the Bab al-Mandeb Strait is only 29 kilometres wide at its narrowest point, and in 2024 the equivalent of 4.1 billion barrels of crude oil and refined products passed through it, about 5 percent of the global total. Yemeni forces announced a naval blockade of Saudi ports on 20 July 2026 (29 Tir 1405), and Reuters reported on Wednesday that they are considering charging fees on transiting ships, something Moammar al-Eryani, information minister of Yemen's internationally recognised government, confirmed the same day.