Yemen’s information minister says the Houthis are laying the ground to take over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Moammar Al-Eryani told AFP late on a Tuesday that the militia is “working to create the conditions” for seizing the passage by spreading along the western coast and trying to capture strategic Yemeni islands in the Red Sea.
The strait links the Red Sea, and through the Suez Canal the Mediterranean, to the Indian Ocean. It matters even more now that Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz in its war with the United States, which has made Bab el-Mandeb a growing route for Saudi oil. A Houthi grip on it would extend Tehran’s reach to a second vital waterway.
Where the Houthis stand
The Houthis do not hold coastline directly on the strait. They do hold the port city of Hodeida to the north, and they have attacked Red Sea shipping since the Gaza war began in 2023. They have also announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia, and a successful push south could threaten Saudi oil exports.
Eryani pointed to a military build-up and to repeated strikes on ports, docks, civilian infrastructure, ships and government naval forces. In recent weeks the rebels have launched their deadliest attacks in years on government troops and have begun hitting Mokha, a port city close to the strait, along with military sites nearby and government-held islands.
Three Houthi military sources told AFP the group is preparing an operation to take areas south of Hodeida. They said about 2,000 fighters, with rocket launchers, have been moved to front lines in Taiz and Hodeida provinces.
A Hormuz in the Red Sea?
Maj. Gen. Sadeq Duwaid, a spokesman for the National Resistance Forces that hold areas bordering the strait, said the attacks on Mokha are meant to give the Houthis a presence on the shore and “transform the area into a situation resembling that of the Strait of Hormuz.”
The Houthis reject the toll comparison. Earlier in August they denied wanting to charge ships for passage after Eryani accused them of copying Iran’s efforts to levy fees at Hormuz. In July they said they were not halting traffic through the strait and that their blockade targeted Saudi Arabia alone.
Mohammed Al-Basha of the US-based Basha Report warned that attacks on Mokha port look aimed at choking off weapons supplies to government forces on the western coast. “The battle for Bab El-Mandeb is coming sooner or later,” he told AFP, adding that seizing the strip of land around the strait would be easier than fighting entrenched troops in the Marib desert.
The escalation is recent. In July the Houthis upended a 2022 truce with Yemen’s UN-recognised government, and after they welcomed an Iranian plane to Sanaa they announced the blockade and began hitting Saudi ships.
