Houthi rebel forces have seized the Yemeni port of Mokha as well as Mayyun Island overlooking the Bab el-Mandab strait. This gives Iran’s most powerful remaining proxy force in the Middle East nearly complete control of Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast.

Directly or indirectly, Tehran now has a chokehold on around 12% of global trade that passes through that waterway. It is also maintaining its pressure on the Strait of Hormuz, which has already led to a cut of flows there from about 9 million barrels of oil a day to between 3.7 and 6.4 million.

The day after the Houthis took control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, Brics leaders assembled in New Delhi, for their 18th annual summit. Brics is the group of “emerging economies” which formed around Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa in 2006, to counter western influence in global institutions. It has since added six permanent members: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Indonesia. A further ten countries, Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam joined as “partner countries” in 2025.

According to its own figures, Brics represents 49.5% of the global population, 40% of global GDP and 26% of global trade. But the conflict in the Middle East is exposing deep divisions in the bloc. This is clear from a reading of the New Delhi declaration, which has no mention of the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandab, Yemen or the Houthis. It contains no reference to........

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