Can the Houthis close the Red Sea after seizing the Yemen coast? - Al Jazeera

**Can the Houthis Close the Red Sea After Seizing the Yemen Coast?**

The Iran‑backed Houthi movement announced on Tuesday that its forces have taken control of an island at the mouth of the Bab al‑Mandeb strait, a chokepoint through which roughly 10 percent of the world’s oil passes. The island, identified by several outlets as Perim, sits at the narrowest section of the Red Sea linking the Gulf of Aden with the wider sea, and its capture follows a series of advances along Yemen’s western coastline that have already disrupted commercial shipping. The Houthi statement, echoed by regional news agencies, claims the operation was a “major victory” that puts them in a position to threaten the flow of oil and container traffic that traverses the route daily.

The strategic significance of the gain has prompted swift reactions from the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, all of whom have warned that any attempt by the Houthis to block or militarise the strait could trigger a coordinated naval response. U.S. Central Command confirmed that additional warships and surveillance assets are being positioned in the Gulf of Aden to ensure the safety of merchant vessels, while the Saudi navy has deployed patrol boats to the Red Sea corridor. Shipping companies, meanwhile, have issued advisories urging vessels to consider alternative routes around the Cape of Good Hope, a maneuver that could add up to two weeks and hundreds of millions of dollars in extra costs to global supply chains.

Despite the Houthis’ rhetoric, experts say a full closure of the Red Sea is unlikely without direct confrontation with a coalition of Western and Gulf militaries. The strait’s narrow geography, combined with the presence of multiple international naval forces, would make an outright blockade both logistically challenging and internationally provocative. Nonetheless, the capture of the island heightens the risk of sporadic attacks on passing ships, mine‑laying, or the use of anti‑ship missiles, all of which could temporarily disrupt traffic and raise freight rates. The development underscores the broader volatility of the Yemen conflict, where local dynamics increasingly intersect with global energy security concerns.