“Well, we didn’t see that one coming — the Houthis took us all by surprise,” a distinguished former security official muttered to me this week. In just under four months the Houthis have attacked 57 vessels in and around the Red Sea. They have disrupted waterways carrying 15 per cent of global trade and all but shut down the Suez Canal to major maritime traffic.
With relatively modest means and weaponry, the Houthis have shown the vulnerable nature of the world’s great shipping choke points — the narrow passages of sea easily blocked and where vessels and their crews can be hijacked and held to ransom.
