Four Yemeni government military sources reported on Thursday that Iran-aligned Houthi forces have taken control of the strategic Red Sea port city of Mocha, expanding their influence over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial global shipping route.
Government figures informed Reuters that Houthi fighters are launching attacks on the strategic Hanish islands in the Red Sea, reports Khaleej Times.
In response, government troops and allied forces are relocating southwards to Dhubab, situated directly on the strait opposite the island of Perim. Military officials stated that holding both Dhubab and Perim Island is key to securing command over the waterway.
An escalation in fighting between Saudi Arabia’s Yemeni allies in the internationally recognised government and the Houthis in recent days has created a second theatre of war in the Iran conflict, putting global energy supplies at risk.
Although a United Nations-brokered truce in 2022 largely halted years of war, it failed to produce a lasting settlement, with the latest clashes threatening a return to full-scale conflict.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, dubbed the “Gate of Tears” owing to its perilous navigation conditions, serves as the Red Sea’s southern outlet, positioned between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea on the African coast.
Securing control over the passage represents a major prize for the Houthis, who hold Yemen’s most populous areas and much of the north.
As one of the world’s most vital shipping routes, the strait carries crude oil and fuel from the Gulf bound for the Mediterranean through either the Suez Canal or the Suez-Mediterranean pipeline on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, alongside commodities destined for Asia, including Russian oil.
Shutting down this narrow passage would isolate Gulf oil-producing nations, such as energy superpower Saudi Arabia, from their primary maritime shipping routes. This development follows Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the primary maritime energy artery connecting Asia and Europe.
The intensifying conflict in Yemen comes as Iran and the United States staged their largest declared wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping in the Gulf region since the war began in February.
