The Houthis’ dramatic advance along the Red Sea, their control of areas around the Bab al-Mandab strait and their renewed missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia have opened another front in the widening confrontation between Iran and the United States. This isn’t simply the revival of Yemen’s civil war; it is a precursor to the next round of the US-Iran war, and Trump is playing a dangerous game.

During the first months of the war, the Houthis kept their distance from the fighting even as Hezbollah and other Iran-aligned forces in Iraq got involved in the confrontation.

That restraint has now ended. The Houthis have swept through strategically important territory along Yemen’s western coast and strengthened their position around Bab al-Mandab, through which roughly 10 per cent of global trade normally passes. They have attacked Saudi shipping and launched missiles and drones towards Riyadh, Yanbu and other targets inside the desert kingdom.

The geography makes the situation particularly alarming. Iran has already severely disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia responded by relying increasingly on its East-West Pipeline, known commercially and officially as Petroline, which carries crude from the eastern oilfields across the kingdom to Yanbu on the Red Sea. But that alternative route has now become vulnerable as well. The pipeline has been attacked, and the Houthis are in a much stronger position to threaten Saudi ships passing through Bab al-Mandab.

Saudi Arabia thus faces simultaneous pressure on both its eastern and western oil-export routes. Yet the US, its biggest ‘oil-for-security’ ally, is standing back. It continues to provide........

© National Herald