Yemen’s Houthi rebels reached the strategic island of Perim in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Friday, four Yemeni government sources told Reuters, moving to tighten their grip on a vital global shipping route in the widening Middle East war.
Earlier, two sources from the internationally recognised Yemeni government said its forces had pulled out of Perim and that the Houthis had also taken the mainland Red Sea coastal town of Dhubab, which faces the island.
If the Houthis gain control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which is on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula from the Strait of Hormuz, it could give Iran a critical advantage in its war with the US, reducing supplies through a second major transit corridor and sending oil prices surging.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter and a close US ally, has relied on the Red Sea route since the Iran conflict effectively closed the Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil used to flow.
In the wider war between Iran and the US, the two sides have carried out a wave of tit-for-tat attacks this week on shipping in the Gulf, while US President Donald Trump has jacked up economic pressure on Tehran.
Diplomacy is largely stalled. Iran confirmed on Friday that its representatives and those of Iraq and the Gulf Arab states would meet in Oman on Monday to resume discussions on safe commercial shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz. The Financial Times originally reported the planned meeting.
In a further potentially significant development for Riyadh, satellite imagery showed smoke on Thursday in the vicinity of Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline, which has become a vital means for the kingdom to divert its crude exports from Hormuz.
There was no confirmation from Saudi Arabia of any incident in the area. The Saudi government media office and state oil giant Aramco did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the smoke visible in the imagery verified by Reuters.
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