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Maritime security around the Arabian Peninsula is facing its greatest challenges in decades. On the one side, the situation in the Red Sea remains tense. Despite two international maritime missions – US-led Prosperity Guardian striving to deter the Houthis through force and the European-Union (EU) operation Aspides attempting to secure the passage of commercial ships through Bab Al Mandab – Ansar Allah’s attacks have continued. Approximately half of merchant vessels continue to avoid the Red Sea. If anything, the conflict in the Red Sea experienced further escalation throughout 2025. The United States’ 52-day bombing campaign against the Houthis in Yemen ended in a nebulous agreement between the US administration and Ansar Allah. While the two parties to the deal promised to stop attacking one another, the Houthis have continued attacking ships flying other flags.
On the Peninsula’s other side, the Gulf arena is not without challenges either. Across this waterway lies Iran, whose parliament approved a motion to close the Strait of Hormuz amidst the country’s recent war with Israel. This move gives the Supreme National Security Council in Tehran the green light to potentially force the suspension of maritime traffic through this chokepoint, opening the door to disrupting hydrocarbon exports and threatening the economic-diversification ambitions of Gulf-Cooperation-Council (GCC) countries in the process. Not only does 20% of the world’s oil pass through the Strait, but threats to navigation in the Gulf – both real and perceived – constrain the viability of GCC states’ efforts to onshore value chains and therefore diversify their economies, a process that starts with the Gulf seaports of Dammam, Mina Salman, and Jebel Ali.
Irrespective of how the situation in the waterways around the Arabian Peninsula further develops, the events of the past two years have demonstrated that neither European countries, the Gulf states, nor other littoral states can take freedom of navigation for granted. To the contrary, securing this principle so central to the export-based economic model of both regions requires political action, whether diplomatic or military, bilateral or multilateral. Still, both regions rely heavily on American security guarantees and the presence of the US Navy in international waterways. In light of Washington’s shifting priorities, however, the responsibility for guaranteeing safe navigation of Middle Eastern maritime choke points will likely fall more heavily on middle powers like the member-states of the EU and GCC.
Nevertheless, diverging responses in the EU and GCC to Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and to the war between Israel and Iran highlight differences regarding the reactions of the two blocs’ respective member states to maritime-security threats whose negative economic and political implications impact them both. The distinct approaches of European and Gulf states to this shared challenge merit discussion that probes the origins of these differences, uncovers similarities in the perception of threats and opportunities, and develops strategies for future cooperation between the two regions. The workshop in Riyadh on 5-6 November fills this gap by providing opportunities for experts, political decision-makers, and military leaders from Saudi Arabia, Europe, and the Horn of Africa to exchange perspectives on how to safeguard freedom of navigation in a global political environment characterised by turbulence, upheaval, and challenges to international law and global norms.
Please note that this is a closed event.
