Iran-backed Houthis seize Yemens strategic port city threatening second global shipping chokepoint
Iran-backed Houthi forces seized Yemen’s strategic port city of Mocha on Thursday and pushed toward positions overlooking the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, opening a potentially dangerous new front for global trade as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains severely constrained.The advance threatens the southern gateway to the Red Sea just as Saudi Arabia has increasingly relied on that route to bypass Hormuz — putting pressure on critical shipping lanes on both sides of the Arabian Peninsula and raising the risk of further disruptions to oil and commercial traffic through a key global trade choke point.“Now you have Iran on one side of the Arabian Peninsula controlling Hormuz, and now the Houthis controlling Bab el-Mandeb on the other side of the peninsula,” Hisham Al-Omeisy, senior Yemen advisor at the European Institute of Peace, told Fox News Digital.“Which basically is going to drive prices — oil prices, goods and everything else — up exponentially.”On background, a senior administration official told Fox News Digital: “The United States is focused on protecting our core national security interests — such as ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea — while empowering our regional partners to take the lead in managing and resolving regional security challenges.
We are in continuous dialogue with Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Yemen Government regarding regional stability.”Yemeni government sources said Thursay the Houthis captured Mocha and reached the Hanish Islands, while Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces withdrew south toward Dhubab, which sits directly on the Bab el-Mandeb opposite the strategic island of Perim.Control of Dhubab and Perim would be critical to gaining a stronger hold over the strait, Yemeni government sources told Reuters on Sept.
10.Bab el-Mandeb is only about 18 miles wide at its narrowest point and connects the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden with the Red Sea and, farther north, the Suez Canal.It is a ma...