‘Death to America’: Houthis seize port just 47 miles from vital Red Sea shipping chokepoint

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait carries roughly a tenth of the world’s oil and close to a third of its container traffic between Asia and Europe. At its narrowest point, a small volcanic island splits the waterway into two shipping lanes. Houthi fighters landed on it Friday, as Yemeni government forces had withdrawn the day before.

The island is called Mayun, and it sits about 3.5 kilometers off Yemen’s west coast. Its capture completes a rapid push that has handed the group the entire Yemeni Red Sea coastline, according to NBC. The group had already seized the port city of Mokha, just north of the strait, a day earlier. A local Yemeni official said the Houthis had completed their takeover of the Bab el-Mandeb area.

Saudi Arabia responded with airstrikes on the airport at Mokha, according to a Houthi broadcaster, with no immediate reports of damage or casualties. Yemen’s National Defense Council condemned the renewed Houthi attacks on Saudi territory.

The other major chokepoint is already effectively closed

The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed since the United States and Iran began exchanging strikes. Saudi Arabia had been sending more crude west toward the Red Sea as an alternative route, but that workaround now runs past territory the Houthis control. Brent crude pushed past $107 a barrel, after touching close to $110 earlier in the week.

The Houthis would not necessarily need to announce a formal closure of Bab el-Mandeb, as insurers and shipping lines tend to abandon a route once the threat of attack becomes credible. That is what happened during the group’s drone and missile campaign beginning in 2023, which pushed major carriers onto the long route around Africa.

Effective control of the strait also hands Iran fresh leverage in a confrontation with the United States that has run from economic pressure on Tehran to exchanges of missile and drone fire in the Gulf. Iran has called on Saudi Arabia to end its blockade of Yemen and resume talks immediately.

The offensive has shattered what remained of the truce the United Nations brokered in 2022, as fighting spread through western Taiz and southern Hodeidah. Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed, and tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced. The Houthis also took the town of Dhubab and advanced toward the Hanish Islands.

Riyadh is in a difficult position after years of trying to reduce its involvement in Yemen. However, the strikes on Mokha show Riyadh is still prepared to use force as the Houthis push farther south. Anti-Houthi factions backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have spent much of the conflict competing with one another instead of acting as a single front.

Yemen’s UN envoy has called for an emergency Security Council session, warning that the Houthis are trying to establish new facts on the ground along the Red Sea.