Yemen’s Houthis reach strategic island at mouth of vital shipping lane

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, has relied on the Red Sea route since the Iran conflict effectively closed Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil used to flow.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis on Friday reached the strategic island of Perim in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, four Yemeni government sources told Reuters, potentially tightening ‌their grip on one of the world’s vital shipping routes and further increasing the threat to energy markets in the widening Middle East war.