A Chinese oil tanker sails through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the coast of Yemen on July 23, 2026. The Houthi stranglehold over the Bab el-Mandeb has demonstrated the limits of President Donald Trump’s Iran strategy. (Shutterstock/Somkanae Sawatdinak)

Why the Houthi Victory Should Change Donald Trump’s Iran Strategy

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With Iranian pressure on both the Bab el-Mandeb and Hormuz straits, the Trump administration needs to lower gas prices before November.

Apart from the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US in 2001, the headlines Friday morning were dominated by the major victory Yemen’s Houthis won against the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. Houthi forces in a single night swept into a large swath of territory along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, taking control all the way down to the tip of the Arabian Peninsula at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and seizing control of the strategic island of Perim in the middle of the strait. 

The collapse of government forces was astonishingly easy, allowing the capture of a huge trove of Saudi-provided equipment and drawing comparisons to the Iraqi Army’s rout in Mosul at the hands of ISIS in 2014 and the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s forces in December 2024. Houthi missile strikes on the Saudi East-West Pipeline also appear to have shut down this critical artery bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, at least for now. The oil markets were also digesting a story in The New York Times showing a plunge in Saudi oil exports even before the pipeline stopped operating due to the Houthis’ threats against Saudi shipping in the Red Sea. 

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal also reported on September 11 that President Donald Trump’s inner circle of advisors has raised with him........

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