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.
