Houthis Seize Red Sea Port Near Key Strait
Houthis Seize Red Sea Port Near Key Strait
The News
Iran-backed Houthi forces have taken a Red Sea port city that puts them within striking distance of one of the world's most important shipping chokepoints — while Yemen's government says it has begun a campaign to retake the capital.
The Houthis took control of Mocha, a Yemeni port city on the Red Sea less than 50 miles from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, three anti-Houthi Yemeni government officials told Reuters on Thursday.
Regional sources told CNN the same day that the Houthis were making a major push on Mocha, which sits about 50 miles north of Perim Island — the rock in the middle of the strait that controls passage through it.
At the same time, Yemen's internationally recognized government says it has launched a counteroffensive to retake Sana'a, the capital the Houthis have held since late 2014.
Why Americans Should Care
Bab el-Mandeb has become the alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, which President Donald Trump's war with Iran has effectively shuttered, CNN reported. Saudi Arabia responded by diverting its oil exports from Hormuz to the Red Sea.
Three years ago about 10% of the world's seaborne oil trade passed through Bab el-Mandeb. Kpler data indicates that volume has since fallen by half, according to CNN, and a sustained Houthi campaign could choke the route further.
Yemen's ambassador to Qatar, Rajeh Badi, put it to Al Jazeera this way: if the Houthis choke Red Sea traffic, "we will be looking at another Hormuz in these waters — with potentially even greater impact."
Timeline
Houthi rebels seize Sana'a and drive the internationally recognized government into exile.
Saudi Arabia launches Operation Decisive Storm with a coalition, followed by Operation Restoring Hope the next month. Neither removes the Houthis from the capital.
A UN-brokered truce eases the fighting, leaving Yemen split between the Houthi-held north and government and southern-held areas.
The Trump administration designates the Houthis a terror group, according to CNN.
The Houthis launch a new offensive against Yemen's government, rupturing a tacit four-year truce with Saudi Arabia and pulling Yemen into the wider Iran war, CNN reported.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan sign the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, which contains collective-defense language the governments have not publicly defined. A Houthi attack on the port of Mocha kills 16 people and closes the port, according to CNN.
Houthi attacks strike Abha, Jazan, Najran and Khamis Mushait in southern Saudi Arabia, injuring 73 people and causing fires and operational disruption at energy facilities, Saudi authorities said. The US Embassy in Yemen says the Houthis "must bear the consequences of their aggression."
Saudi coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki says the Houthis attacked Khamis Mushait, Abha and Jizan with ballistic missiles and drones. The Houthis say Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes inside Yemen, Semafor reported.
Yemeni officials tell Reuters the Houthis control Mocha. Government forces say their campaign to retake Sana'a has begun.
Reactions
Yemeni Deputy Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Samir al-Sabri said on official Yemeni television that "the decision to liberate Sana'a has been finalized and taken decisively," saying government forces were advancing on several fronts to restore state institutions.
Houthi spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said on X that the operations amount to "Saudi aggression," asserting that Saudi Arabia — not the Yemeni army — is carrying them out, and threatening further attacks if the campaign continues.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said "the Houthis have opened a Pandora's box for themselves," adding that "the path for diplomacy to deal with the Houthis remains open." Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said the kingdom "reserves the right to respond to these attacks in self-defense."
Tarik Saleh, a vice president in Yemen's government, told CNN he is receiving no help from the United States, "only talk." If the Houthis seized Perim Island and the strait, he warned, "then a massive (international) force and the navies will be needed" to dislodge them.
Adam Baron of the New America Foundation told France 24 that if both Iran and the Houthis can disrupt shipping in the Gulf and the Red Sea, "this would be a tremendous exercise of leverage to put pressure for a resolution."
What's Next
Perim Island is the prize. Whoever holds it can threaten ships passing the narrowest point of the strait, where the Horn of Africa comes within 12 miles of the Arabian Peninsula.
The government's claim to be marching on Sana'a is unproven. Officials say they have advanced in Al-Jawf, Al-Bayda, Taiz and Al-Hudaydah; those claims have not been independently verified in full, though reporting has confirmed intensified fighting in Al-Jawf and Al-Bayda.
Watch for outside forces. A Yemeni analyst told The Media Line that Turkish or Pakistani forces could join if Saudi Arabia invokes the Mecca agreement. No Turkish or Pakistani deployment has been announced.
More
CNN reported that if history is a guide, Bab el-Mandeb is where Iran, through its proxy, could next tighten the screws on Trump — driving up oil prices ahead of the US midterm elections in November.
Analysts differ on how much of this is Tehran's doing. Mohammed Al-Basha, a Washington-based risk analyst, described the Tehran-Houthi relationship as "not a submissive relationship — but they are in bed together." Farea Al-Muslimi of Chatham House said the Houthis "needed a war as diversion from domestic problems."
Roughly 22 million Yemenis, about half the population, still need humanitarian assistance, according to CNN.
Poll
Should the US intervene to keep the Bab el-Mandeb Strait open?
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