CAIRO/WASHINGTON/DUBAI, Sept 10,2026: Iran-aligned Houthis seized control of c on Thursday, military sources said, posing a further threat to global energy supplies.
Four Yemeni government military sources said the Houthis had gained further leverage over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern outlet of the Red Sea and one of the world’s most important shipping routes, and were launching attacks on the strategic islands of Hanish.
Later, two Yemeni government sources reported the Houthis had reached the islands.
If the Houthis impose a stranglehold over the waterway, on the opposite side of the Arabian peninsula from the Strait of Hormuz, it could give their sponsor Iran a critical advantage in the war with the United States, reducing supplies through a second major transit corridor and sending oil prices surging.
Brent crude prices rose 3.5% to above $100 a barrel on Thursday on concern over disruption to supply routes.
The Houthis entered the current war alongside Iran with an attack on Israel on March 28, but largely stayed quiet before declaring a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in July and stepping up attacks on the south of the kingdom in September.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, has relied on the Red Sea shipping route since the Iran conflict effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil used to flow.
Tensions in the region were high on Thursday, with Saudi civil defence authorities issuing emergency alerts in the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait for the fourth time in 24 hours, as the Houthis attacked.
Pakistan has delivered a Saudi warning to Iran to rein in its Yemeni Houthi allies in an effort to prevent the crisis from spiralling, Saudi, Pakistani and Iranian sources said.
A senior Iranian official confirmed that Pakistan conveyed the message to Tehran on Tuesday and its response was that “Iran does not control the Houthis”.
The conflict in Yemen between Saudi Arabia’s Yemeni allies in the internationally backed government and the Houthis, comes as Iran and the United States staged their biggest declared wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping in the Gulf region this week since the war began in February.
AXIS OF RESISTANCE
Seen as part of a regional alliance known as the “Axis of Resistance” backed by Iran, the Houthis have also rallied behind the Palestinians in the Gaza war, lobbing drones and missiles at Israel and attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
