Language Settings
Select Website Language

Houthis Seize 130km of Yemen Coast, Widening Iran's Reach

1 hour ago

Iranian-backed Houthi fighters have captured up to 130km of Yemen's Red Sea coastline, tightening Tehran's grip on a vital global shipping chokepoint.

Iranian-backed Houthi fighters have swept across the southern edge of the Tihamah, Yemen's dry Red Sea coastal plain, seizing ground that the anti-Houthi National Resistance coalition held only days earlier. Some estimates put the captured territory at as much as 130km (81 miles) of strategically vital shoreline, a gain that took most watchers of the conflict by surprise.

Saudi-backed Yemeni units, which had controlled significant stretches of the coast, were unable to hold the line and lost much of it within a matter of days. Analysts describe the offensive as the most striking military success the group has achieved in years, coming after 12 years of civil war, repeated Saudi bombing runs, and strikes by American, Israeli and British forces.

"Now that they are there, they're going to be entrenched," Hisham al-Omeisi, a senior analyst at the Brussels-based European Institute of Peace, told the BBC. "And it's going to be a lot more costly to push them out." With their opponents shaken and short on morale, few expect the Houthis to be forced back soon.

Tehran redirects its support

The advance underscores how central the Houthis have become to Iran's regional strategy. Tehran has leaned more heavily on the group after reverses suffered elsewhere by its allied network, the so-called Axis of Resistance, including Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas in Gaza and the fallen Assad government in Syria.

"So they redirected their support to the Houthis," al-Omeisi said. "And of course they need that support." Most analysts caution against dismissing the Houthis as mere Iranian proxies, but the past week has produced an uncomfortable outcome for the group's rivals.

Seven months after the United States and Israel jointly attacked Iran, Tehran now holds sway, directly or through allied forces, over two of the world's most important sea lanes: the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, and the Bab al-Mandab, the gateway between the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

A grip on 35% of the oil trade

"Now Iran, directly and through proxies, controls two of the most strategic choke points in the Middle East and the world," said Farea al-Muslimi, a research fellow at the London think tank Chatham House, "controlling more than 35% of the fuel and oil trade globally."

"This is as much leverage as a nuclear bomb," he added. The scale of that leverage helps explain jittery energy markets: crude oil touched $100 a barrel for the first time since July following exchanges of strikes involving US and Houthi forces.

Reports that the Houthis have also taken several key islands in the Red Sea, among them Perim, would sharpen the threat further. Perim sits at the tightest point of the Bab al-Mandab, and holding it would give the group a far greater ability to disrupt vessels moving through the passage.

The group has already demonstrated what it can do at sea. During its campaign linked to Israel's war in Gaza, Houthi missiles, drones and small attack boats repeatedly targeted commercial shipping in the Red Sea, exposing how exposed traffic through the corridor can be.

Yemen expert Iona Craig told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday that the group had managed to police movement through the Bab al-Mandab and toward Suez even before securing land along the coast. "But of course now they're controlling the area immediately overlooking the Bab al-Mandab, and this gives them far more leverage," she said.

Shipping firms are expected to treat any Houthi assurances about safe passage with caution. For now, the rebels have converted a rapid battlefield gain into a commanding position over one of the arteries of global trade, and their opponents have shown no sign of being able to reverse it.

Houthis, Yemen, Bab al-Mandab, Red Sea shipping, Iran, Strait of Hormuz, National Resistance, Perim island

Click here to Read More
Previous Article
England Cancer Waits Worsen as 62-Days Treatment Target Slips
Next Article
Israel Probes Venice-Winning Gaza Documentary 'Naza' for Treason

Related Middle East Updates:

Are you sure? You want to delete this comment..! Remove Cancel

Comments (0)

    Leave a comment