WIREDGOV

Houthi gains around Bab Al-Mandeb have exposed rival visions of Gulf security, as Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, Pakistan and the US weigh competing responses.

Over the course of a few fateful days, Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement – the Houthis, an Iran-aligned group designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organisation – crossed several regional red lines. Its fighters made lightning gains along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, seizing Mocha, Dhubab and strategically important islands around Bab Al-Mandeb. On 8 September, the group also launched attacks against Saudi Arabia that injured more than 70 civilians. Riyadh subsequently said it had intercepted a Houthi drone heading towards Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, an allegation the Houthis deny.

At the same time, a separate drone attack, reportedly launched by an Iran-aligned armed group operating from southern Iraq, struck Saudi Arabia’s East–West Pipeline. Running from the oil-processing centre of Abqaiq in the Eastern Province to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, the pipeline has become an economic lifeline for the Kingdom as disruption around the Strait of Hormuz continues to constrain Gulf energy exports.

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