{"id":562757,"date":"2026-07-28T01:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/562757\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T01:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:45:08","slug":"houthis-want-to-copy-irans-hormuz-control-in-the-red-sea-yemeni-fm-houthis-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/562757\/","title":{"rendered":"Houthis want to copy Iran\u2019s Hormuz control in the Red Sea: Yemeni FM | Houthis News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking in Riyadh, Yemen\u2019s internationally recognised government warns that global complacency has emboldened the Houthis.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Published On 28 Jul 202628 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

Yemen\u2019s Houthi movement is aiming to replicate Iran\u2019s \u2060strategy in the Strait of Hormuz by controlling shipping flows in the Red Sea\u2019s Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Yemeni government\u2019s top diplomat warns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Houthis want to copy the Iranian model , and this will shut down two main straits, the gateways into the \u2060Gulf and Red Sea,\u201d the foreign minister-designate for the internationally recognised Yemeni government, Afrah al-Zouba, told journalists on Monday.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Speaking at the Yemeni embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, al-Zouba said the Iran-backed Houthis have been emboldened due to the insufficient international response to their activities in the region.<\/p>\n

Bab al-Mandeb Strait connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the wider Indian Ocean, and \u2013 much like the Strait of Hormuz \u2013 a significant portion of the global economy depends on the unimpeded flow of maritime traffic through it.<\/p>\n

Approximately 30 percent of global container traffic passes through the Red Sea, and 12 to 15 percent of overall global trade.<\/p>\n

Yemen\u2019s geography gives whoever controls the country\u2019s west a commanding influence over traffic through Bab al-Mandeb.<\/p>\n

Data suggests that shipping through the Red Sea is already declining, with just 11 commodity vessels passing through it on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Al-Zouba\u2019s comments come as tensions between the Houthis on one side and Saudi Arabia and Yemen\u2019s internationally recognised government on the other escalate.<\/p>\n

Earlier in July, the Houthis declared a maritime siege on Red Sea shipping to and from Saudi Arabia, and launched missiles and drones at the kingdom.<\/p>\n

Riyadh has since launched air strikes on Yemen\u2019s key port city of Hodeidah, held by the Houthis.<\/p>\n

July\u2019s escalation is the biggest since a truce was agreed to in 2022 and came amid a resurgence of US attacks on Iran.<\/p>\n

Al-Zouba said Yemen\u2019s government, which Saudi Arabia backs, is prepared for an escalation, and that fire was being exchanged along the front line where Houthi-controlled territory meets government-controlled areas, but that no offensive had been launched.<\/p>\n

Nearly 20 fighters from both sides died earlier this month<\/a> during clashes between the Houthis and government forces around Hodeidah.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of people have died in Yemen since war broke out in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and then-President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi eventually fled to Riyadh.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia led an Arab coalition in a campaign to dislodge the Houthis from 2015 up to the 2022 truce.<\/p>\n

As of 2026, the Houthis remain in power in the capital and other parts of Yemen. Meanwhile, tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which Riyadh accuses of backing a southern separatist group in Yemen, have affected developments<\/a> on the ground.<\/p>\n

Yemeni civilians have paid the heaviest price, with an estimated 377,000 dying between 2015 and the beginning of 2022, most of them from war\u2019s knock-on impacts, such as famine and disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking in Riyadh, Yemen\u2019s internationally recognised government warns that global complacency has emboldened the Houthis. Published On 28…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,8954,47,43,78,40,38,41,39,2893],"class_list":["post-562757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-houthis","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-yemen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}