Houthis capture key Yemeni port of Mocha, raising fresh threat to global energy supplies

Iran aligned Houthi fighters seized control of the Yemeni port city of Mocha on Thursday, according to military sources, escalating the threat to global oil supplies just hours after President Donald Trump said he expected the broader war to wind down following the November midterm elections.

Four Yemeni government military sources said the Houthis had strengthened their grip over the Bab el Mandeb Strait, the southern gateway of the Red Sea and one of the most important shipping corridors in the world, while simultaneously launching attacks on the strategically significant Hanish Islands. Two additional Yemeni government sources later confirmed that Houthi forces had reached the islands themselves.

If the Houthis succeed in tightening their control over the waterway, located on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula from the already contested Strait of Hormuz, the development could hand their Iranian backers a significant strategic advantage in the ongoing conflict with the United States by restricting a second major global oil transit route and driving prices sharply higher. Brent crude climbed 3.5 percent to trade above 100 dollars a barrel on Thursday amid growing concern over potential disruption to shipping through the strait.

The Houthis first entered the current war alongside Iran with an attack on Israel on March 28, but largely refrained from further major action until declaring a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in July and intensifying attacks on the kingdom’s southern region in September.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, has increasingly relied on the Red Sea shipping corridor since the broader conflict with Iran effectively closed off much of the traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that previously carried roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply. Tensions across the region remained elevated Thursday, with Saudi civil defence authorities issuing emergency alerts in the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait for the fourth time within 24 hours as Houthi attacks continued.

Saudi, Pakistani and Iranian sources said Pakistan had delivered a warning from Saudi Arabia to Iran, urging Tehran to restrain its Houthi allies in an effort to prevent the crisis from escalating further. A senior Iranian official confirmed that Pakistan conveyed the message directly to Tehran on Tuesday, adding that Iran’s response was that it does not exercise control over the Houthi movement.

The renewed fighting in Yemen between Saudi backed government forces and the Houthis comes as Iran and the United States carried out their largest publicly acknowledged exchange of attacks on shipping in the Gulf region so far this week since the war began in February, further raising concern about the potential for the conflict to spread across multiple maritime chokepoints simultaneously.

Regarded as part of the broader Iran backed regional network known as the Axis of Resistance, the Houthis have also positioned themselves as supporters of the Palestinian cause throughout the war in Gaza, launching drones and missiles at Israel while separately targeting commercial shipping vessels transiting the Red Sea.