Houthis seek to copy Iran’s Hormuz strategy in Red Sea

RIYADH — Yemen's Houthi movement is seeking to replicate Iran's strategy in the Strait of Hormuz by disrupting shipping activity in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Yemen's top diplomat said on Monday, warning that the group has been encouraged by what it considers an inadequate international response.

"The Houthis want to copy the Iranian model, and this will shut down two main straits, the gateways into the Gulf and Red Sea," Yemeni Foreign Minister-designate Afrah Al-Zouba said during a meeting with a small group of journalists at the Yemeni embassy in Riyadh.

The Red Sea has emerged as a new front in the Iran conflict, with the Houthis intensifying attacks against Saudi Arabia through missile and drone strikes and announcing a blockade on Saudi shipping.

Saudi Arabia has responded with airstrikes on what it described as Houthi military facilities and has pledged to protect commercial shipping routes. The kingdom has also accused the Houthis of advancing foreign interests.

The escalation has raised concerns of renewed conflict in Yemen, where hundreds of thousands of people were killed after the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting Saudi Arabia to lead an Arab coalition intervention.

A truce was reached in 2022, but recent cross-border attacks have strained the ceasefire. Saudi officials, Western diplomats, and Yemeni officials said the possibility of a return to full-scale war is now higher than at any point since the truce.

Zouba said Yemen's government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, is prepared for a possible escalation. She said clashes have continued along the frontline stretching from the country's northwest near the Red Sea to the Saudi border, although neither side has launched a major offensive.

"We think that this conflict now needs to come to an end, either via peaceful means, or the other way," Zouba said.

-Reporting by Timour Azhari in Riyadh; Writing by Yasmine Ghania and Timour Azhari; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Stephen Coates/Reuters