The Iran-allied Houthis threaten the strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait

BarcelonaThe Houthis of Yemen, the armed movement allied with Iran, have advanced positions from the territory they controlled in the northwest of the country towards the Red Sea coast and are now threatening the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key maritime route that connects Asia and Europe passing through the Suez Canal. From these positions, they can cause more tensions in the context of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran war. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has celebrated the advance as a "divine triumph".

On Thursday, they announced the conquest of several localities that until now were under the control of the internationally recognized government of Yemen, which has not offered resistance: the port of Mocha and the Hanish Islands. And on Friday they claimed they had controlled the port of Dhubab, further south, and the island of Perim. An average of 5.4 million barrels of oil per day circulated through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until the end of 2025, but with the blockade of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia is using it as an alternative route and this figure has increased to 8 million. Riyadh announced on Saturday the shutdown of the pipeline that supplied this path, after suffering drone attacks launched from Iraqi territory. In response to the latest offensive, as reported by the portal Axios, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Donald Trump to ask for military support, but Washington does not want to get directly involved in Yemen.

The Red Sea, through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, has become a vital route for Saudi Arabia to export its oil. If the Houthis were to gain total control of the strait, the group could close the passage of ships through this route or charge tolls. This would give Iran and its allies control of two key maritime routes in the region.

Although the immediate trigger for the fighting has been the war between the United States and Iran, the origin lies in years of conflict within Yemen itself, which is now intensifying again. The civil war has pitted government forces, supported by Saudi Arabia and a coalition of Arab countries, against the Houthis, who are allies of Iran, for more than a decade. The fighting has forced more than 76,000 people to flee their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the new crisis further exacerbates one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. The war in Yemen and, in particular, the Saudi Arabian airstrikes have devastated the population. At least 150,000 people have died since 2014 solely due to the fighting and hundreds of thousands more due to famine and disease. About 4.5 million people have been displaced by the fighting and more than 18.2 million are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN.