Sultan Barakat says Houthi advances along the Red Sea coast — after seizing
Mocha, moving into Dhubab and reaching Perim Island at the narrowest point of
the Bab al‑Mandeb — have changed the strategic geometry and given the group
unprecedented leverage over one of the world’s key maritime chokepoints. He
warns the latest escalation is not just another phase of Yemen’s civil war or
solely an Iranian move against Gulf states; it is simultaneously a contest for
control of Yemen, a renewed confrontation with Saudi Arabia and an additional
front in the wider Iran‑Israel‑US conflict. Barakat cites misjudgments about
Yemen’s force balance, Houthi efforts to improve negotiating leverage and
spillover from the Iran‑Israel war as drivers of the escalation.
