Saudi Arabia Urges US to Strike Houthi-Controlled Bab al-Mandab Strait

Saudi Arabia is pushing Washington to launch direct strikes against Iran-backed Houthis after the militant group grabbed key spots along Yemen's Bab al-Mandab Strait on Friday. Fox News Digital got this news as they watched events unfold. This tightening of Houthi control happens right at one of the planet's most critical shipping bottlenecks. That narrow waterway links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. It has long served as a bypass route because war in Iran keeps disrupting oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

The fast move on Friday sparked immediate talks between top leaders in Riyadh and Washington. A source who knows about the situation told Fox News Digital that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked President Donald Trump to take military action against the Houthis. The Houthis reached the strategic island of Mayyun, also known as Perim, after Yemeni government forces pulled back. They also took the mainland coastal town of Dhubab. Four Yemeni government sources told Reuters on Friday about these gains.

Fox News Digital independently confirmed key parts of an Axios report with a source familiar with the matter. That person said the crown prince spoke with Trump several times in the last 24 hours regarding the worsening situation in Yemen. The U.S. does not want to go after the Houthis directly right now, but Trump told bin Salman that Washington would help Saudi Arabia with intelligence and targeting support. The source also confirmed that U.S. Central Command commander Adm. Brad Cooper flew to Saudi Arabia for coordination talks.

The White House did not reply to Fox News Digital's request for comment on those calls or whether more U.S. military action is being considered. A Saudi official told Fox News Digital 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 official added, "The Kingdom will also take every necessary measure to ensure that its own citizens and residents are safe and its borders are secure."

This convergence opens the door for pressure on two of the world's most important maritime arteries at once. Iran could disrupt traffic through Hormuz while its Houthi allies get stronger around Bab al-Mandab. Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that this shift shows Tehran trying to win back 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. The latest advance comes right after the Houthis captured Mocha on Thursday. That is a strategic Red Sea port previously held by forces aligned with Yemen's internationally recognized government. Former U.S.

Special Envoy for Yemen Timothy Lenderking spoke Friday to reveal that the Houthis have spent the years following the 2022 U.N.-brokered truce rebuilding their military strength. They are now using the wider Iran conflict as a tool to pile more pressure on Saudi Arabia. During an on-the-record Middle East Institute virtual briefing, Lenderking explained that while the April 2022 deal largely paused Yemen's civil war, it also allowed the Houthis to regroup, retrain, refit, and restock.

"They're extremely entrepreneurial," Lenderking said. "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." He traced this latest round of escalation partly to Iranian Mahan Air flights into Sanaa earlier in the summer. Those flights brought personnel and equipment intended to support the Houthi war effort. Lenderking noted the personnel came from Iran and were probably IRGC members.

Lenderking said the Houthis are now seizing this opportunity, bringing various lines of effort together to put a great deal of pressure on the Yemen government and Saudi Arabia specifically. A senior Trump administration official told Fox News Digital on Thursday that the United States is focused on protecting core national security interests like ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea while empowering regional partners to take the lead on resolving local security challenges. The U.S. remains in continuous dialogue with Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Yemen Government regarding regional stability.

The stakes stretch far beyond Yemen's borders. 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. Any disruption could 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. This underscores the pressure already facing the region's other critical maritime choke point.

Ben Taleblu warned that 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, a senior Yemen adviser at the European Institute of Peace, told Fox News Digital on Thursday that the danger extends beyond the territory captured. Retreating government forces 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." These developments mark a dramatic reversal from the relative calm that followed the 2022 truce. Washington and its regional allies now face 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.