Iran-Backed Houthis Seize the Red Sea Port of Mokha, Lifting Oil Prices

Iran-backed Houthi fighters seized the Yemeni port city of Mokha on Thursday, PBS News reported, a significant gain along the Red Sea coast that sent oil prices higher and raised the prospect that Yemen could slide back into all-out war. Brent crude rose above $105 a barrel on concerns about disruption to global supply routes, PBS said.

Mokha sits near the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a critical shipping chokepoint and gateway to the Red Sea. The Houthis took the city from allies of Yemen’s internationally recognized government after Saudi-backed forces had tried to hold the line for weeks, PBS reported. Houthi fighters entered a government building, seized Western-made armored vehicles, freed prisoners and filmed themselves at the airport.

Government forces withdrew inland rather than south, PBS reported. Gregory Johnsen of the Arab Gulf States Institute told the network that the anti-Houthi coalition is eight to ten groups divided by infighting, which the Houthis exploit, and that the rebels are moving south along the coast, giving them access to more targets in the strait and potentially threatening nearby islands. “Saudi airpower isn’t capable of defeating the Houthis on their own,” he said.

A Houthi spokesman, Mohamed Al-Bukhaiti, said the group does not need to take control of the strait or its islands because its missiles can reach any ship in the area, PBS reported. The United Nations special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, warned that “this renewed war should alarm us all” and said it ended a relative calm of more than four years.

Saudi Arabia, which backs the Yemeni government, has been drawn in. Saudi Arabia bombed a Houthi-controlled airport in July, saying a plane there was carrying Iranian weapons, and Saudi officials say Houthi attacks have destroyed civilian homes and wounded more than 70 people, PBS reported. Johnsen said Saudi Arabia is unwilling to commit foreign ground troops and will likely rely on airstrikes.

The fighting reaches American pockets quickly. Gasoline hit a record $4.14 a gallon for Labor Day, according to AAA figures reported by The Associated Press, with the Iran war and the reduced flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz the main causes. Bab el-Mandeb is a second chokepoint now under pressure.

PBS tied the advance to the pressure on oil markets, with Brent above $105 a barrel.