Yemen’s Houthi Movement aims to replicate Iran’s Hormuz Strait strategy in the Red Sea by disrupting shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb and has been emboldened by an insufficient international response, Yemen’s top diplomat said on Monday.
“The Houthis want to copy the Iranian model and this will shut down two main straits, the gateways into the Gulf and Red Sea,” Yemeni Foreign Minister-designate Afrah Al-Zouba said, speaking to a small group of journalists at the Yemeni embassy in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Red Sea a new front in the Iran war
The Red Sea has become a new front in the Iran war, with the Houthis taking an escalatory approach against Saudi Arabia by firing missiles and drones at the kingdom and declaring a blockade on Saudi shipping.
Saudi Arabia has responded with airstrikes on what it said were Houthi military facilities and said it would protect commercial shipping, accusing the Houthis of serving foreign agendas.
The escalation has also threatened to bring back conflict to Yemen, where war killed hundreds of thousands of people after the Houthis stormed the capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting Saudi Arabia to intervene at the head of an Arab coalition.
A truce was reached in 2022 but it has been pierced by the recent cross-border fire, and Saudi officials, Western diplomats and Yemeni officials see a return to full-scale war as more likely now than at any point since then.
Zouba said Yemen’s government, which enjoys strong Saudi backing, was prepared for an escalation and that firing was taking place along the frontline, spanning the country’s northwest from the Red Sea up to the Saudi border, but neither side had yet mounted an offensive.
“We think that this conflict now needs to come to an end, either via peaceful means, or the other way,” she said.
- Yemen's Houthi Movement seeks to emulate Iran's strategy by disrupting shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, aiming to control key maritime gateways.
- The Red Sea has emerged as a new conflict zone, with the Houthis escalating attacks on Saudi Arabia using missiles and drones and blockading Saudi shipping.
- Saudi Arabia has retaliated with airstrikes on Houthi targets and pledged to protect commercial shipping, accusing the Houthis of advancing foreign interests.
- Rising hostilities threaten to reignite full-scale war in Yemen, despite a 2022 truce, with increasing cross-border fire and tensions along the Saudi border.
- Yemen's government, backed by Saudi Arabia, is prepared for potential escalation but calls for a resolution either through peaceful means or conflict.
Yemen's
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Saudi Arabia has responded with airstrikes on what it said were
A truce was reached in 2022 but it has been pierced by the recent cross-border fire, and Saudi officials, Western diplomats and Yemeni officials see a return to full-scale war as more likely now than at any point since then.
Zouba said Yemen's government, which enjoys strong Saudi backing, was prepared for an escalation and that firing was taking place along the frontline, spanning the country's northwest from the Red Sea up to the Saudi border, but neither side had yet mounted an offensive.
"We think that this conflict now needs to come to an end, either via peaceful means, or the other way," she said.
