Houthis Seize Red Sea Islands as Iran Expands

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Patrick Bet-David (0:30)

Houthis seized a key Red Sea island, threatening another global oil route.

The Iranian-backed Houthis militia seized Pyram Island and Bab el-Mandeb Strait. After days of fierce fighting, Gimini government officials said Friday, given Iran and its allies sway over the two main routes for shipping oil out of the Middle East. The capture came as Saudi Arabia announced it had shut down a critical oil pipeline after a drone attack launched from Iraq and a day after Houthis forces swept into the port city of Mocha. Iran has already largely cut off oil through the Strait of Hormuz. Now its ally holds a foothold at the Red Sea bottleneck. Satellite images showed a plumb of black smoke more than 60 miles long near the pipeline. Ahmed and Nagi of the International Crisis Group called the takeover a game changer. In the past, they were creating uncertainty, but now they're controlling everything around Bab el-Mandeb. Crown Prince Mohammed MBS urged President Trump and called this week to take military action. Trump declined but pledged intelligence and targeting support. The 2022 truce let the Houthis rebuild. They created new weapons, say, Catham House, Faria al-Maslami. They made a much more brutal and efficient version of the state. Let me put it to you this way on what's happened. See that map right there? That's the island.

They took over Moha, the historic port city. They took over Dubab, overlooking the strait. They took over Mayan Perun. They took over Zakur. And as of today, AP reports show, now they've seized the greater and lesser of Hanish Island as well. This is right there on the bottom. Tom, if you want to go through this to the average person, when we think about the Strait of Hormuz, that's the top. What we're talking about right now is more the bottom, the Djibouti, which about 12 percent of business goes through there. Tom, why is it so important?

Tom (2:23)

This is important because if you were to draw a line straight across Saudi Arabia, see Jeddah there to UAE, just draw a line straight across, the Saudis built a pipeline, so they could have ships over there, and the ships can go north to Cairo, and they go through the Suez Canal, which goes to Mediterranean, and they could take oil to Europe. They also would go south through the Yemeni Pinch, which is right there, and all the islands Pat's talking about is right where those two pieces of land come together, right near Sheikh Dabouche, and...

Adam (2:55)

Jaboude?

Patrick Bet-David (2:56)

Trying to get to you.

SPEAKER_1 (2:56)

Jaboude. Have a little respect for that booty.

Tom (3:00)

So now watch what happens. So A, Saudi pipeline goes all the way across, they go in the ships, and they go to Cairo north. But they also need to get to India and Indonesia and to China and other places, so Saudi build the pipeline that could go south of that.

Patrick Bet-David (3:16)

This was their insurance policy.

Tom (3:18)

This was the insurance policy.

Patrick Bet-David (3:19)

They knew this was coming, and so they build this in case Iran went nuts, which they have.

Tom (3:24)

And now, guess what? Now the Houthis are controlling all of the stuff in Yemen there, and they are not good people. Everybody that lives on each side of that over there are not good people at all. And so now we have two areas that are pinched, and on top of it, if I make one comment, but we won't go there, we'll just make the comment.

Now you can see why Trump over the weekend said to Zelensky, I understand you're pounding Russian positions, but go easy on the diesel manufacturing because he's thinking about two things, world price of diesel and European access to diesel of those who do get it from Russia.

SPEAKER_1 (4:05)

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