Yemen\u2019s Houthis have seized the crucial Red Sea city of Mocha, expanding control over the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait, one of the world\u2019s most important trade routes.<\/p>\n
The Iran-backed group took over Mocha on Thursday while internationally recognised government forces withdrew, sources told Al Jazeera\u2019s Yemen correspondent, Yousef Mawry. Three Yemeni government sources also told the Reuters news agency that the city had been taken.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe Yemeni government tried to put up a fight; they called reinforcements \u2026 but the overwhelming military pressure of the Ansar Allah Houthis eventually [led to them taking] over the port and the city itself,\u201d Mawry said. The Houthis are now moving south towards Dhubab, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Yasser Hassan, reporting from Taiz.<\/p>\n
Following the Houthi advance on Thursday, the deputy head of Yemen\u2019s internationally recognised Presidential Leadership Council directed government forces on the western coast to regroup. Council member Tariq Saleh described the move as a \u201ctactical withdrawal\u201d to reorganise forces.<\/p>\n
Council head Rashad al-Alimi said that developments around Mocha port and Bab al-Mandeb \u201care not a purely Yemeni affair\u201d, but a regional and international matter tied to global trade. He called on the international community to intervene \u201cto end what the Houthis have done\u201d at both the strait and the port.<\/p>\n
Al-Alimi said Bab al-Mandeb \u201ccannot become another Strait of Hormuz\u201d and that \u201cYemen cannot become another Iran\u201d, calling for decisive international action.<\/p>\n
Yemen\u2019s Foreign Minister Afrah al-Zouba separately sent a message to the United Nations Security Council calling for a firm international stance on the situation on Yemen\u2019s western coast.<\/p>\n
\u2018Not overly surprising\u2019<\/p>\n
Wolfgang Pusztai, a defence analyst, said seizing Mocha was a major development as it puts the Houthis in a position to cut off the road leading to Taiz, in a \u201cvery significant blow against the government\u201d.<\/p>\n
It also enables them to \u201ccontrol pretty much all of Yemen\u2019s coast on the Red Sea\u201d and Bab al-Mandeb, Pusztai told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
The Strait of Hormuz is about 34 kilometres (21 miles) wide at its narrowest point, compared with about 29km (18 miles) for Bab al-Mandeb.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means they could control it just with artillery; they wouldn\u2019t need to even use missiles or drones to attack ships. This would certainly be a major blow to Saudi Arabian shipping and international shipping,\u201d the analyst said.<\/p>\n
From Taiz, Al Jazeera\u2019s Hassan said government forces have pledged not to let the Houthis advance further, with field commanders in Taiz and on the western coast saying there are active attempts under way to return to Mocha and retake it.<\/p>\n
Saudi foreign policy analyst Abdulaziz Alghashian described the rapid Houthi advance in southern Yemen as \u201cconcerning; it\u2019s disappointing, but maybe not overly surprising\u201d.<\/p>\n
Taking control of Mocha was not necessarily enabled by \u201cthe strength of the Houthis, but probably a discombobulation of the anti-Houthi forces\u201d, he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
He added that Saudi Arabia would likely go for a tit-for-tat response as it does not want to enter into \u201ca long-winded campaign\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018Safe and uninterrupted\u2019 shipping<\/p>\n
Yemen\u2019s ambassador to Qatar, Rajeh Badi, accused Iran of reigniting the war after a lull of about five years and using the Houthis to tighten its grip on Red Sea shipping routes.<\/p>\n
Badi said the relationship between Iran and the Houthis was \u201cno longer a secret\u201d, describing the group as one of Iran\u2019s key regional arms alongside Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) in Iraq.<\/p>\n
Pusztai said that while Iran has \u201ca huge influence on the Houthis\u201d, \u201cthe Houthis are not only proxies of Iran. They are fighting also their own war\u201d.<\/p>\n
As part of the Houthis\u2019 offensive against Yemen\u2019s Saudi-backed government, the group has staged\u00a0attacks on oil facilities<\/a>\u00a0and civilian infrastructure deep inside Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n