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How Iran Appears to Have Engineered the Embargo on Saudi Vessels in the Bab el-Mandeb On July 3, a Mahan Air plane took off from Sanaa bound for Tehran, defying the Saudi air embargo on Yemen. The same aircraft tried to return on the 13th but was denied landing authorization. Faced with the pilot’s defiance in maintaining course and disregarding warnings, the Saudi-led coalition struck the Sanaa airport runway, forcing the aircraft to divert to a nearby airfield. This immediate escalation provoked a severe Houthi backlash, triggering retaliatory strikes against key Saudi facilities that handle 60% of the kingdom's Red Sea exports.  Since 2022, Yemen had been under a fragile but relatively stable truce that had calmed fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis. The Yemeni government backed by Riyadh allowed only limited commercial flights out of Sanaa, and only to Egypt and Jordan. Iran knew that forcing the flight would create the exact friction needed to reignite the conflict between the Houthis and the Saudis. That friction would generate attacks and disrupt Saudi shipping traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, as the Houthis have positioned dozens of anti-ship missile batteries along the Red Sea coast.  They operate more than 10 distinct models of anti-ship missiles, some of which, such as the Sayyad and Quds Z-0, are derived from the Iranian Quds family and have estimated ranges of up to 800 km, in addition to the Al-Mandeb 1 and Al-Mandeb 2 missiles. These are modern missiles with local assembly assisted by Iranian technicians.  Read more: https://t.co/Ip8tfOJLkY