Iran's Revolutionary Guard threatened this week to use a critical shipping strait as the next front in its standoff with the United States, warning that regional energy exports will either flow for everyone or for no one at all.
The threat signals Tehran would lean on its Houthi allies in Yemen to block the shipping route — a move that would mark a sharp escalation in the brewing US-Iran confrontation.
Iran's warning comes amid an escalation with the US, which has endangered the fragile agreement they reached late last month.
The warning lands as the fragile agreement Washington and Tehran reached late last month is unraveling under fresh escalation — raising the question of whether the Revolutionary Guard is prepared to act on the threat or is telegraphing leverage.
The region now waits to see whether the Guard's rhetoric hardens into operational steps.