The second squeeze

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: rebels target a crucial shipping route.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have taken control of nearly all of Yemen's Red Sea coast, and along the coast, some strategic ports.

In less than a week’s time, they captured two islands and a port city.

The fighting has killed more than 500 people, and driven almost a hundred times that number from their homes.

NICK EICHER, HOST: The Houthis are an ideological terror group that receives funding and weapons from Iran. And with Tehran already threatening traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the Houthis threaten to cut off another route from the Middle East.

Many are looking to Yemen’s government to try to stop it.

LENDERKING: It's very important that in this moment that the Yemen government rise to this challenge …

REICHARD: Tim Lenderking is a State Department advisor. He spoke at a webinar for the Middle East Institute late last week:

LENDERKING: The worst thing that can happen to the Yemen government right now, and it is happening, is losing territory.

EICHER: Bullets started flying once again in July, when a four year-long peace negotiation ended. Yemen’s government bombed one of its own runways to prevent an Iranian airliner from landing. But it did so anyway …

LENDERKING: Nevertheless the Houthis got away with helping this aircraft land against international sanctions.

REICHARD: The Yemeni government is allied with Saudi Arabia … and so the Houthis have specifically targeted Saudi interests. Last week, U.S. officials confirmed the Saudis asked President Trump for American airstrikes against the Houthis. Trump declined, instead sending intelligence … and offering to help Saudi forces identify Houthi targets. The Saudi forces mounted their own assault.

EICHER: So far, the Houthis have targeted the region surrounding the Red Sea, including the strategically important Strait of Bab el Mandeb … a bottleneck for about 10 percent of global trade. Shipping traffic there is already down about a fifth and Lenderking says the Houthis’ goal is to keep squeezing.

LENDERKING: Egypt is already responding and engaging with the Houthis to say, don't you dare, you know, cut off the Bab el Mandeb.

REICHARD: The Houthis have also ramped up attacks on Saudi Arabia. The group claimed it landed “direct hits” with ballistic missiles at oil facilities and an air base. Saudi Arabia has not yet confirmed this. Still, Lenderking says Yemen needs more military support to push back the rebels:

LENDERKING: The Yemen government is backed by you know is internationally recognized and is backed by almost every country other than Iran. But they do need more support. They need more support politically.

Lenderking says it’s in America’s best interest to protect the Bab El Mandeb strait:

LENDERKING: this is a situation that really warrants not just Saudi attention, but U.S. attention as well, and not just at the military level. I'd like to see our engagement with with our political leadership also enhanced.

EICHER: With the Houthi advance in the Red Sea, that’s now two major choke points under attack, and global oil prices spiking past $100 a barrel and staying there.

To make matters worse, Saudi Arabia just suffered a drone attack against an oil pipeline — reportedly launched by Iranian forces operating inside Iraq.

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