Middle East Shipping Threats Rise as Owners Plot Best Course

By Weilun Soon, Grant Smith and Nicholas Lua

Jul 22, 2026 (Bloomberg) –Challenges to shipping in the Middle East escalated, as a call from Iran-backed Houthi rebels against servicing Saudi ports spurred unusual maneuvers in the Red Sea, while a European Union naval group raised its threat level for the waterway.

In the Red Sea, two Asia-bound vessels appear to be heading north toward the Suez Canal — a potentially much longer route — while others paused their journeys, tracking data showed.

EUNAVFOR ASPIDES, an EU military operation in the Red Sea, raised its assessment of the threat level for transiting