Houthis seize Mayun island, tightening pressure on Red Sea oil route

Houthi rebels have captured Yemen's Mayun island at the mouth of the Red Sea. The move sharpens risks to Saudi oil routes and Yemen's fragile truce.

In Short

• Saudi Arabia halted a key pipeline after an attack, citing precautionary safety
• Shipping through the strait had dropped sharply since Houthi attacks began
• Officials blamed poor coordination among allies for giving rebels an opening

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have captured Mayun island, a strategic outpost at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, according to two officials. The development opens a new front in the Iran war and adds to concerns over Saudi oil exports through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the world's key shipping lanes.

The advance came as Saudi Arabia said on Friday that it had shut down a major cross-country oil pipeline after it was attacked a day earlier. In a statement, the Saudi Ministry of Energy did not say who carried out the attack and described the shutdown as "a precautionary measure".

The capture of Mayun, a small volcanic island inside the strait also known as Perim, was confirmed by a senior military official with Yemen's internationally recognised government and by a Houthi official. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to journalists. The Houthis' biggest territorial gains in years, along the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, could strengthen Iran's strategy of pushing up global oil and gas prices to put pressure on the United States.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has increasingly relied on the Red Sea to move its crude as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has been striking ships. Houthi attempts to close the 28-kilometre-wide Bab el-Mandeb channel have made that route more difficult. Saudi officials declined to comment on the developments.

In Yemen, Saudi Arabia struck the airport in the port city of Mokha, which the Houthis seized on Thursday, according to a Houthi broadcaster. There were no reports of damage or deaths. In a statement on Friday, the Houthi armed forces spoke of gains along the coast without mentioning the island, Mokha or the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. They vowed "escalation for escalation" in the confrontation with Saudi Arabia and said that "maritime navigation is safe for all companies except for Saudi vessels".

Markets remain uneasy, with experts describing the Houthis as highly unpredictable. Crude prices this week rose again above USD 100 a barrel, giving Tehran more leverage in any talks. Built in the 1980s, the East-West pipeline has been central to Saudi Arabia's ability to keep exporting oil when movement through the Strait of Hormuz was disrupted during Iran's war with the US and Israel.

The Houthis have been attacking Saudi shipping on the Red Sea since declaring a blockade in July, besides hitting oil infrastructure inside Saudi Arabia. The rebels said they acted in response to the kingdom's years-long blockade of Houthi-held parts of Yemen. A senior military official with Yemen's internationally recognised government told AP they were stunned that the Saudi air force did not try to prevent the capture of Mokha, about 80 kilometres from the strait. He assessed that Saudi Arabia did not get a green light from the US to begin a large-scale air campaign.

The same official also blamed "lack of coordination" between Yemen's army and multiple allied militias, saying it gave the Houthis "a priceless opportunity". Shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait had fallen by about 60 per cent since the Houthis began attacking some ships there in late 2023 while expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Shipping increased this year as Saudi Arabia sought alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz, but renewed Houthi threats have "curtailed" that activity, according to Lloyd's List Intelligence.

This has forced Saudi Arabia to seek another option, sending its oil north out of the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, either through the Suez Canal or a pipeline across Egypt, a much longer route for its clients in Asia. The Houthis have threatened that route too, striking a Saudi vessel in the northern Red Sea in late August.

Earlier on Friday, Iran called for an end to Saudi Arabia's blockade of Houthi-held areas in a show of support for its ally. Iran's Foreign Ministry also called for a return to negotiations between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis. In another sign of the Houthis' importance for Tehran, the spokesperson for Iran's Revolutionary Guard on Wednesday said any negotiated settlement with the US should include Yemen, the first explicit reference to that front. The call mirrored Iran's earlier position that any truce in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel should be part of a deal with the US.

Saudi Arabia, which said it had always offered "opportunities for negotiation", also said it had the right to defend itself. The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia spoke on Thursday about diplomatic efforts to "restore stability", Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on social media.

As the Houthis advanced along the Red Sea coast towards the Bab el-Mandeb channel, Yemen's Saudi-backed government called for international support. In a statement on Friday after a meeting held a day earlier, its National Defence Council said it was on the front line of defending freedom of navigation and condemned the Houthis' renewed attacks on Saudi Arabia. The escalation threatens a fragile truce that has largely held since 2022 and raises the risk of a return to Yemen's civil war, which has affected 40 million people in the Arab world's poorest country. The Houthis have been fighting Yemen's government since 2014, when they seized much of northern and central Yemen, including Sanaa, and Saudi Arabia entered the war the following year in support of the government.

The capture of Mayun island, the attack on Saudi oil infrastructure and renewed calls for talks from Iran together underline the widening pressure around the Red Sea, even as Yemen's fragile truce faces a fresh threat.

With PTI Inputs

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