Conflicting reports have emerged of an alleged attack by Houthi rebels on a merchant ship off Yemen.
Security company Dryad Global said unverifiable reports had emerged from Saudi Arabia, claiming that Western-backed coalition forces had thwarted an assault in the Bab-el-Mandeb area of the southern Red Sea by deploying waterborne improvised explosive devices.
Dryad said that a Saudi-led coalition spokesman, Colonel Turki al-Malki, was unable to provide further details regarding the incident.
Risks remain
Al-Malki had earlier told Saudi state news agency SPA that the military alliance had destroyed an unmanned boat laden with explosives.
Houthi spokesmen have strongly denied the claims.
Dryad's assessment is that there is "currently no wider evidence to corroborate and confirm these reports and therefore the risks remain unchanged within this region."
A realistic possibility is that Saudi Arabia is attempting to maintain the momentum of stories linking Iran to the disruption of commercial vessels
Dryad Global
"Due to the ongoing proxy war being fought regionally between Iran and Saudi Arabia, it does remain likely that Iran would increase its targeting of US and Saudi interests," it added.
Unmanned vessels
"However, it does not necessarily favour Iran to create geopolitical disruption at two choke points, the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, within the space of a month."
The company said: "A realistic possibility is that Saudi Arabia is attempting to maintain the momentum of stories linking Iran to the disruption of commercial vessels and interests in the region in order to further heighten international consensus against Iran."
Dryad, however, acknowledged that a pattern of behaviour by Houthi forces does persist, and prior attacks on vessels in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait have occurred, most notably in September 2018.
It remains a realistic possibility that Houthi units could use unmanned vessels, in line with prior incidents, to target commercial vessels off the coast of Yemen, it said.
