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Yemen's Red Sea port of Mocha has fallen to Iranian proxy military force Houthi this Thursday morning, completing an impressive military campaign to give the Ansar Allah (Houthis) force almost total control of one of the world's most important trade chokepoints – the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
The Houthi forces captured the city of Mocha after Yemeni government forces withdrew to the western outskirts of the city of Taiz, local officials confirmed to Reuters on Thursday. Fighters of the Iranian-backed Ansar Allah group entered Mocha after its takeover, local social media reports said. Meanwhile, the Houthis also seized control of Red Sea islands of Zaqar and Al-Hanish and launched an attack on the island of Mayun. The group also captured the port of Al Khawkah.
It is worth noting that the Bab al-Mandeb Strait is one of the world's key trade routes, accounting for around 10-12% of global trade. Much of this trade is in crude oil and LNG, and so the Houthi capture of Mocha, and hence the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, is highly significant. According to Al Jazeera, the Houthis can now "monitor all the three routes through which the government forces are receiving supplies in the south".
Mocha, in fact, is known all over the world as the coffee's birthplace. It has been a major coffee exporting port since the 15th Century. This summer, after the re-start of the Yemeni civil war, Mocha has been a number of times hit by bombs. Most recently, the Saudi Aramco oil and gas facilities in Saudi Arabia were attacked by Houthi ballistic missiles and drones. This led to the return of the Saudi air force to its failed bombing campaign of its neighbor from 2015. The Houthis have in the meantime grown stronger.
The collapse of the South Transitional Council (STC) this year will mean that two opposing groups will now be battling it out on the Yemeni battlefield: The Houthis and the forces of the Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), who have lost Mocha.
Iran through its proxy force, the Houthis, continues to excel at disrupting international trade for energy. The Houthis currently control the Red Sea coast and now seek to add more to their list of interdicted trade. According to reports the Houthis are now landing on Mayun island that controls access to the Bab al-Mandeb.
Members of Mecca Defense Pact – Pakistan and Turkey – had threatened intervention in the battles against Iranian backed forces in the Red Sea, but nothing has happened as yet.
