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Source: https://www.thetimes.com/world/middle-east/article/houthis-yemen-saudi-arabia-dgr7bjsvq
Houthi "Pirate Regime" Now Controls 90 Miles of Red Sea Coastline
(The Times-UK) Michael Knights - The Houthis are celebrating the 12th anniversary of their violent overthrow of the UN-backed Yemeni government this week, after their forces overran the last government-held enclaves on the Red Sea coastline this month. Now they can reach out and touch global shipping with greater ease than ever before, controlling the coast at the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, astride the shipping lanes. Saudi Arabia looks weak, as do the kingdom's long-established partners (the U.S. and Europe) and its new Mecca Joint Defense Agreement allies (Pakistan and Turkey). None of these military giants did anything to stop the Houthi advance, or to prevent Iran-backed militias in Iraq from crippling Saudi Arabia's east-west oil pipeline with drone strikes earlier this month. I was embedded with the Yemeni government forces on all main front lines as they confronted the Houthis while researching my military histories about the post-2015 Yemen war. I first saw the Houthis as a bedraggled band of tribesmen being beaten up by the dictator then leading the country. I had a clearer view by the time the Houthis took over Yemen in 2014. They are quite nasty ethnic supremacists who believe only their caste can rule Yemen. Since the 1980s, their leaders have used Iranian and Lebanese support to try to turn themselves into a clone of Hizbullah. They have now surpassed Hizbullah as Iran's foremost partner. When the Houthis attacked this month, they employed drone warfare that would put the Ukrainians to shame, and broadcast deepfake withdrawal orders that would make any Russian spymaster proud. The Yemeni front line fell back. The failure to defend the Red Sea terrain is a damning indictment of the feebleness of the dysfunctional coalition that is trying desperately to neuter the Iranian regime and its Yemeni, Lebanese and Iraqi partner militias. We should not exaggerate; the situation on the Red Sea coast today is not totally transformed from the picture before the recent Houthi offensive. Since 2024, the group has used its Iran-supplied anti-shipping missiles, drones and mines to effectively close off the southern Red Sea on various occasions to most shippers, who are now taking the long way around Africa. It is in no respectable state's interests to see the Houthi pirate regime astride the Red Sea shipping lanes, on a roll, looking for new worlds to conquer. The writer is an adjunct fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.