Yemen’s Houthis seize strategic Red Sea city of Mocha

Yemen’s Houthis have seized the crucial Red Sea city of Mocha, expanding control over the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait, one of the world’s most important trade routes.

The Iran-backed group took over Mocha on Thursday while internationally recognised government forces withdrew, sources told Al Jazeera’s Yemen correspondent, Yousef Mawry. Three Yemeni government sources also told the Reuters news agency that the city had been taken.

“The Yemeni government tried to put up a fight; they called reinforcements … but the overwhelming military pressure of the Ansar Allah Houthis eventually [led to them taking] over the port and the city itself,” Mawry said. The Houthis are now moving south toward Dhubab, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Yasser Hassan, reporting from Taiz.

Following the Houthi advance on Thursday, the deputy head of Yemen’s internationally recognised Presidential Leadership Council directed government forces on the western coast to regroup. Council member Tariq Saleh described the move as a “tactical withdrawal” to reorganise forces.

Council head Rashad al-Alimi said that developments around Mocha port and Bab al-Mandeb “are not a purely Yemeni affair”, but a regional and international matter tied to global trade. He called on the international community to intervene “to end what the Houthis have done” at both the strait and the port.

Al-Alimi said Bab al-Mandeb “cannot become another Strait of Hormuz” and that “Yemen cannot become another Iran”, calling for decisive international action.

Yemen’s Foreign Minister, Afrah al-Zouba, separately sent a message to the UN Security Council calling for a firm international stance on the situation on Yemen’s western coast.

Wolfgang Pusztai, a defence analyst, said seizing Mocha was a major development as it puts the Houthis in a position to cut off the road leading to Taiz, in a “very significant blow against the government”.

It also enables them to “control pretty much all of Yemen’s coast on the Red Sea” and Bab al-Mandeb, Pusztai told Al Jazeera.

He noted that while the Strait of Hormuz is about 50km (30 miles) wide, the Bab al-Mandeb strait is much narrower at about 20km (12 miles).

“This means they could control it just with artillery; they wouldn’t need to even use missiles or drones to attack ships. This would certainly be a major blow to Saudi Arabian shipping and international shipping,” the analyst said.

From Taiz, Al Jazeera’s Hassan said government forces have vowed not to let the Houthis advance further, with field commanders in Taiz and on the western coast saying there are active attempts under way to return to Mocha and retake it.

Saudi foreign policy analyst Abdulaziz Alghashian described the rapid Houthi advance in southern Yemen as “concerning; it’s disappointing, but maybe not overly surprising”.

Taking control of Mocha was not necessarily enabled by “the strength of the Houthis, but probably a discombobulation of the anti-Houthi forces”, he told Al Jazeera.

He added that Saudi Arabia would likely go for a tit-for-tat response as it does not want to enter into “a long-winded campaign”.

Yemen’s ambassador to Qatar, Rajeh Badi, accused Iran of reigniting the war after a lull of about five years and using the Houthis to tighten its grip on Red Sea shipping routes.

Badi said the relationship between Iran and the Houthis was “no longer a secret”, describing the group as one of Iran’s key regional arms alongside Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) in Iraq.

Pusztai said that while Iran has “a huge influence on the Houthis”, “the Houthis are not only proxies of Iran. They are fighting also their own war.”

As part of the Houthis’ offensive against Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, the group has staged attacks on oil facilities and civilian infrastructure deep inside Saudi Arabia.

The Houthi-affiliated Saba news agency on Thursday said Saudi forces launched an additional 40 air strikes on the governorates of Taiz, Hodeidah, al-Jawf and Marib.

Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, the de facto Houthi-led governing authority in Sanaa, said on Thursday that clashes on the western coast had been halted following what it described as the expulsion of government-aligned reinforcements.

The council reaffirmed its commitment to international obligations regarding Red Sea navigation and called on parties concerned with maritime security to press Saudi Arabia not to send further reinforcements to Mocha.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam described the coastal offensive as a “national operation” aimed at asserting Yemeni sovereignty. He said the group had no further territorial ambitions and that a “just and honourable peace” remains its strategic choice.

Salam also said that navigation and international trade in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb strait “remain safe and uninterrupted”. However, the group said their ban on Saudi ships remains in place, reported Saba news agency.

Pakistan has warned Iran to restrain the group and said its defence pact with Saudi Arabia and Turkiye could become operational if Houthi attacks on Saudi territory persist.

The three nations last month finalised a new mutual defence pact , named the Mecca Defence Alliance, after a meeting of senior officials.