Singapore

Singapour, Tuesday, September 22, 2026. For a city-state that derives its prosperity largely from maritime trade and imported energy, the escalation in Yemen is first and foremost a matter of routes and prices. According to the Straits Times, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced on September 21 that he had accepted a Saudi request for "defensive" support, in the form of in-flight refueling provided by a Royal Air Force Voyager aircraft, in the coming days, for a limited duration that he says he wants to "keep under review". Riyadh had requested this support after the intensification of Houthi attacks, which already control the most populated areas of Yemen.

Washington, for its part, remains on the sidelines. Reuters, cited by the Straits Times, reports that Donald Trump made "no direct promise" of military support during a call on September 20 with Yemeni President Rashad al-Alimi, despite repeated pressure from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The New York Times, also cited by the same newspaper, even claims that Trump had prepared strikes on September 20 before canceling them "at the last minute", while bombs were already loaded onto planes - a piece of information that Reuters says it cannot verify.

On the ground, the Saba agency, close to the Houthis, reported on September 22 that a strike by the Saudi coalition on the port of Mokha had killed six civilians, including two children, and injured eight people. The Houthi advance towards the Red Sea coast, which began this month, has already resulted in nearly 700 deaths and displaced more than 120,000 people, according to the UN, while the World Food Programme says it is responding to a crisis where 90% of Yemeni food is imported and 18 million people suffer from acute food insecurity.

For the Singaporean press, the crux of the matter remains the threat to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and, by extension, the Strait of Hormuz, two vital passages for Saudi oil and a large part of global merchandise traffic: Saudi Arabia has already had to reroute its exports to Hormuz, a shift that, according to the Straits Times, is fueling a global increase in fuel prices. For a hub like Singapore, whose economy depends directly on freight and refining, every partial closure of a maritime corridor translates into insurance costs and delivery delays, even before affecting regional diplomacy.