Alwaght- Yemen's Ansarullah advances into the western coastal regions and seizure of Bab-el-Mandeb region have redrawn a major part of Yemen military map, opening the door to new phase of clashes whose consequences will not be limited to inside Yemen, but spread to impact the national security of Arab countries, international maritime security, and world energy markets.
After recent weeks of success in liberating the strategic city of Mokha, the Yemeni armed forces have continued to push forward in a bid to consolidate their gains and fully control the regions overlooking the Red Sea fron the north to the west and southwest.
Fierce clashes on new fronts
Fresh clashes have erupted across multiple frontlines in Yemen, with Turkey's Anadolu Agency reporting new fighting between Ansarallah forces and Saudi-backed troops in Taiz, Marib, al-Jawf, al-Bayda and Lahj. The heaviest combat was reported Saturday in the southwestern provinces of Taiz and Lahj.
According to Arab News, fierce battles between the two sides raged for a fourth consecutive day around a strategic mountain in al-Madharibah, al-Arah and al-Wazi'iyah, in southwestern Taiz and Lahj overlooking the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, as Sanaa's forces pressed to seize the high ground commanding the vital Red Sea waterway.
In the wake of the fighting, Yemen's armed forces aligned with the Ansarallah movement declared they had succeeded in liberating the strategic heights from Saudi mercenaries.
Citing an official in the exiled Aden government, Arab News claimed Ansarallah is seeking to control mountainous positions overlooking the strait, with its next target potentially a southward push toward areas closer to Aden.
In Marib, Ansarallah and Yemeni army forces clashed with troops loyal to the Aden government across several frontlines on Saturday. Despite casualties on both sides, no significant advances were reported. The Aden-aligned army confirmed 13 of its soldiers were killed over two days in Marib.
Saudi airstrikes on Yemeni cities also figured in the day's developments. Brigadier General Yahya Saree, spokesman for Yemen's armed forces, tallied the Saudi aerial campaign over the past week, noting the enemy had continued its strikes on several provinces in recent hours.
In a brief statement Sunday evening, Saree said Saudi warplanes had carried out 26 airstrikes in the past 24 hours using F-15 aircraft launched from Khamis Mushait and Taif air bases, targeting Taiz province.
Saree said the total number of Saudi enemy airstrikes this week had reached 300, hitting Taiz, Hajjah, Marib, al-Jawf, al-Bayda, Amran, Lahj, Hodeidah and Saada, the bastion of Ansarullah movement.
Meanwhile, Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council, who runs the exiled cabinet from Riyadh, described Sanaa's advances Thursday as "temporary," claiming Ansarallah had suffered heavy losses in Taiz, Marib, Lahj, al-Jawf, Hajjah, al-Bayda and al-Dhale. He vowed government forces would seize the initiative and retake areas under militia control. But Interior Minister Ibrahim Haidan struck a different note in remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, voicing concern over the government's fears about expanding fortifications and sites linked to drones, missiles and guided boats in the region.
Alimi's pledge to recapture lost territory comes after Ansarallah and Yemeni army forces seized the Red Sea port city of Mokha, a base for National Resistance forces commanded by Tariq Saleh, a member of the Presidential Leadership Council, in a lightning assault on Sept. 10.
They then pushed south, capturing the strategic island of Perim in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the coastal Kahubab area, gaining control over one of the world's most important international shipping lanes.
Analysts now believe Ansarallah-backed Yemeni armed forces' control of the Al-Aghbarah mountains strengthens their positions at Bab-el-Mandeb, giving them surveillance and fire superiority over the area and enabling them to prevent any enemy troop buildup or movement around Bab-el-Mandeb and the western coast.
Bab-el-Mandeb the main target of Ansarullah: Further pressing Saudi throat
Bab-el-Mandeb links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and is one of the world's busiest shipping corridors between Europe and Asia and constitutes a vital route for oil, gas, and container ships transiting to and from Suez Canal.
Under normal conditions, roughly 12 to 15 percent of global trade has historically passed through this narrow waterway, which separates Yemen from Djibouti and Eritrea on the African side and spans just 30 kilometers at its narrowest point.
The strait's importance surged sharply after insecurity and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, as the world's most critical oil chokepoint, amid war between Iran and the US and the Israeli regime, which blocked the passage and diverted the bulk of Persian Gulf crude exports to alternative routes.
Saudi Arabia in particular has come to rely on pipelines and Red Sea shipping to bypass Hormuz, sending 4 to 5 million barrels per day to international markets through the Yanbu port before Ansarallah declared a naval blockade in response to the 11-year all-out Saudi siege on Yemen.
But now that alternative route is itself under threat. Reports indicate that after Ansarallah stepped up pressure, Saudi oil exports through Bab-el-Mandeb have plummeted, forcing Riyadh to shift some cargoes to the longer Suez Canal route, a detour that adds time and cost to oil shipments bound for Asian markets.
For Saudi Arabia, the issue is not merely the loss of a shipping lane; it calls into question the effectiveness of one of the kingdom's most important mechanisms for reducing its vulnerability to a Hormuz crisis. If oil piped from eastern Saudi Arabia to Yanbu cannot transit the southern Red Sea safely, the strategic value of that infrastructure is sharply diminished. The simultaneous crises at Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandeb have thus left Riyadh facing a situation in which both its primary and alternative energy export routes are exposed to security risks and rising costs at the same time.
The fallout is hardly confined to Saudi Arabia. The more ships that divert to alternative routes, the more distance, transit time, insurance and fuel costs rise, expenses that can ultimately be passed on to consumer markets. The stakes are similarly elevated for the Israeli regime, since the Red Sea is one of its key links to Asian and East African markets, and sustained insecurity at Bab-el-Mandeb could drive up the cost of its maritime access to those markets.
Seen in this light, Ansarallah's advance carries another significant consequence: the deterrence equation has shifted from "the ability to attack ships" to "the ability to create sustained uncertainty in a global corridor." Even without a full halt to traffic, heightened risk can push shipping companies and cargo owners to reroute, precisely what was seen earlier in the Red Sea.
Another key dimension of this shift is the geographic position of the Hanish Islands. With their capture, Ansarallah forces now sit roughly 32 kilometers from the US military base in Djibouti, on the African side of the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.
That proximity carries major strategic weight, as Djibouti sits at the southern entrance to the Red Sea and hosts one of the most important US military bases in the region. Some analysts believe Ansarallah's presence on the Hanish Islands could lay the groundwork for a "zone of influence" for Iran and its allies on both shores of Bab-el-Mandeb.
US avoiding war with Ansarullah
Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly recently phoned the US President Donald Trump and called for direct US military intervention in defense of the Arab kingdom, only to be surprised by the White House saying that it will not enter a new front and instead saying it talks to Sana'a, with both highlighting the commitment to the ceasefire of last year and security of the American ships transiting Bab-el-Mandeb.
Still, the US agreed to provide intelligence and targeting data and CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper was deployed to Saudi Arabia for talks with Riyadh's rulers. Media reports described this American approach a kind of "support without intervention" to Saudi Arabia.
