Houthi rebels reportedly seize strategic Yemeni port as trade concerns mount
Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen joined Brian Kilmeade to address reports that Yemen’s Houthis have captured a strategic Red Sea port, warning that the developments underscore the continued danger posed by an Iran aligned with nuclear ambitions. Thiessen also weighed in on President Trump’s previous airstrike decisions as the discussion centered on U.S. national security concerns and the widening geopolitical stakes across the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia is pressing Washington to launch direct military action against the Iran-backed Houthis, News Outlet learned, after the terrorist group seized key positions Friday along Yemen’s Bab al-Mandab Strait.
The Houthi advance significantly strengthens the group’s foothold along Yemen’s coastline at one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints. The narrow waterway connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and has become an increasingly important route as the war involving Iran continues to disrupt shipping, particularly oil traffic, through the Strait of Hormuz.
Friday’s rapid gains set off urgent conversations in Riyadh and Washington. A source familiar with the matter told News Outlet that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urged President Donald Trump to strike the Houthis militarily.
Houthi supporters demonstrate in solidarity with Iran, amid a two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, in Sanaa, Yemen, April 10, 2026. (Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)
The Houthis reached the strategic island of Mayyun, also known as Perim, after Yemeni government forces pulled back, and they also captured the mainland coastal town of Dhubab, four Yemeni government sources told Reuters on Friday.
News Outlet independently verified key details from an Axios report with a source familiar with the situation, who said the crown prince spoke with Trump multiple times over the past 24 hours about the escalating crisis in Yemen.
For now, the U.S. is not seeking to take direct military action, but Trump told bin Salman that Washington would provide Saudi Arabia with intelligence and targeting support, the source said.
The source also confirmed that Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, traveled to Saudi Arabia for coordination talks.
The White House did not respond to News Outlet’s request for comment about the calls or whether additional U.S. military action is being considered.
A Saudi official told News Outlet on background that the kingdom “will continue to support the internationally recognized government in Yemen in its effort to promote peace, unity and stability across the country and is working closely with its partners, including the United States, to ensure freedom of navigation in the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea.”
“The Kingdom will also take every necessary measure to ensure that its own citizens and residents are safe and its borders are secure,” the official added.
U.S. President Donald Trump walks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during an official state arrival ceremony at the Saudi Royal Court on May 13, 2025, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The convergence raises the prospect of simultaneous pressure on two of the world’s most consequential maritime arteries: Iran disrupting traffic through Hormuz while its Houthi allies strengthen their position around Bab al-Mandab.
Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told News Outlet that the shift reflects Tehran’s effort to recover leverage as pressure around Hormuz changes.
“Trump’s success in pushing back on Iran’s maritime threat in the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf has made the regime lose the maritime leverage it had, and now it is looking to double down on the Houthis who have proven to be able to impact Red Sea shipping and the Bab al-Mandab Strait in the past,” Ben Taleblu said.
“As Tehran loses leverage in the Strait of Hormuz, it is trying to wield a knife and a handshake at once: diplomacy with Arab states and a knife in the back via the Houthi offensive,” he added.
Satellite imagery shows Bab al-Mandab Strait, a key shipping waterway and the gateway to the Red Sea, as Iran threatens using Yemen’s Houthi allies to shut the Bab al-Mandab gateway to the Red Sea, in this handout picture dated July 12, 2026. (Nasa Worldview/Handout via Reuters)
The latest advance follows the Houthis’ capture Thursday of the strategic Red Sea port of Mocha, which was previously held by forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
Former U.S. special envoy for Yemen Timothy Lenderking said Friday that the Houthis had spent the years since the 2022 U.N.-brokered truce rebuilding their military strength and are now exploiting the broader Iran conflict to increase pressure on Saudi Arabia.
Speaking during an on-the-record Middle East Institute virtual briefing, Lenderking said the April 2022 truce largely put Yemen’s civil war on pause but also “did allow the Houthis to regroup, retrain, refit, restock.”
“They’re extremely entrepreneurial. They use every opportunity to build their capability, to test their capabilities, such that they are now the most lethal non-state actor in the entire Middle East,” Lenderking said.
Lenderking traced the latest round of escalation in part to Iranian Mahan Air flights into Sanaa earlier this summer, which he said brought personnel and equipment intended to support the Houthi war effort, adding that the personnel were from Iran and were “probably IRGC members.”
Members of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces fire a tank during what they say to be clashes with Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in a location given as near Al-Hazm, Yemen, in this screen grab obtained from a handout video released September 9, 2026. (Media Centre Of The Yemeni Armed Forces/Handout via Reuters)
Lenderking said the Houthis are now taking advantage of the wider conflict with Iran to increase their leverage over Riyadh.
“They’ve seized this opportunity, bringing these various lines of effort together, to put a great deal of pressure on the Yemen government and the Saudis specifically,” he said.
On Thursday, a senior Trump administration official told News Outlet: “The United States is focused on protecting our core national security interests — such as ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea — while empowering our regional partners to take the lead in managing and resolving regional security challenges. We are in continuous dialogue with Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Yemen Government regarding regional stability.”
The stakes extend well beyond Yemen.
The Bab al-Mandab is only about 18 miles wide at its narrowest point and serves as the southern gateway to the Suez Canal. About 7% of global oil output passed through the strait in June, according to Kpler data cited by Reuters. Disruption can force ships to reroute around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, adding significant time and cost to voyages.
Reuters reported Friday that only seven vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, compared with a prewar daily average of 125, underscoring the pressure already facing the region’s other critical maritime choke point.
A vehicle burns after being attacked by Houthis during fighting with Saudi-backed forces at a location given as Al Jawf, Yemen, in this still image taken from a handout video released September 9, 2026. (Al Masirah/Handout via Reuters)
Ben Taleblu said the speed of the Houthi advance exposed vulnerabilities in the Saudi-led effort to contain the group.
“The U.S. should help the Saudis stymie the Houthi advance,” he said. “The inability of the Saudis to prevent the Houthis from taking the strategic port city of Mocha, for example, does not bode well for what may come.”
Hisham Al-Omeisy, senior Yemen adviser at the European Institute of Peace, told News Outlet on Thursday that the danger extends beyond the territory captured. Retreating government forces, he said, left behind military equipment that could strengthen the Houthis on other fronts.
“People are focused on taking Mocha and those outposts on the Red Sea,” Al-Omeisy said. “But the military side is terrible, particularly the equipment, the munitions, the vehicles, the drones that were at those military camps, which they can now, in turn, use against the government forces elsewhere.”
The developments mark a dramatic reversal from the relative calm that followed the 2022 truce and leave Washington and its regional allies confronting a growing question: whether the Houthi advance can be contained without opening another direct U.S. military front as American forces remain focused on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.
