Fighters of the Houthis have now advanced onto the Yemeni island of Perim, situated at the entrance of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, according to four government sources in Yemen cited by Reuters.
This advance ensures that the Houthis hold full control over Bab al-Mandab, one of the most critical maritime thoroughfares in the world.
Perim, also known as Mayyun, is located at the narrowest point of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, where merely a few miles of sea separate the Arabian Peninsula from the Horn of Africa.
For centuries it served as a strategic prize for empires.
Now it risks transforming into one of the most pivotal flashpoints in the war between the US and Iran.
Having captured the island, the Houthis will be able to threaten maritime navigation through Bab al-Mandab far more directly.
«We had told the world that this constitutes an Iranian plan, but back then nobody listened to the Yemenis...
Now it is a geopolitical issue», Tarek Saleh, vice president of the internationally recognized government of Yemen, stated to CNN.
According to Saleh, if the Houthis hold Perim Island and consolidate control over the Bab al-Mandab Strait, «then a massive international force and naval fleets will be required» to dislodge them.
The horror scenario: Naval mines in Bab al-Mandab
Warnings from the internationally recognized government of Yemen are dramatic.
Officials estimate that if the Houthis secure a genuine bridgehead at Bab al-Mandab, they will no longer require long-range missiles to threaten commercial shipping.
They will already be stationed right beside them.
And then the worst-case scenario emerges: the mining of the strait.
As warned by Abdel Nasser El Mamlouh, a Yemeni military official, the Houthis could attempt in Bab al-Mandab what the government of Yemen maintains occurred in Hormuz.
«They will mine the strait, just as Iran did in Hormuz», Mamlouh stated.
Should such a scenario unfold, the world will find itself confronting not just one, but two energy chokepoints in a state of active warfare.
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