The Tehran-backed Houthis in Yemen have stepped up their missile and drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities and seized more territory from Saudi-backed government forces in Yemen, including the strategic port of Mokha Sept. 11. The reactionary group has taken nearby islands to advance its control of maritime traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea, saying it will allow all ships to pass through except Saudi vessels.
At the same time, militias in Iraq, financed and armed by Tehran, launched drone attacks on a key Saudi pipeline that moved millions of barrels of crude oil a day to the Red Sea, forcing its temporary shutdown. The pipeline had allowed the Saudi rulers to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, where Tehran has frequently attacked their ships.
The Houthis had announced a blockade on Saudi ships in July but began escalating their attacks recently at the request of Tehran.
The Iranian rulers hope the Houthi attacks will give them leverage to push Washington to lift its highly effective maritime blockade of Iran’s ports and to accept Tehran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz. Until the latest war between the U.S. rulers and Tehran, some 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied gas passed through that strait. As much as 14% of world maritime trade passes through the Bab el- Mandeb Strait.
The Houthis’ military operations have growing importance for Tehran because Hezbollah and Hamas — key allies in Tehran’s long-term goal of destroying Israel and expelling or killing the Jews who live there — have been badly battered by Israel over the last three years.
Israel is waging its war to defend its existence as a crucial refuge for Jews. Its ongoing strikes are aimed at preventing Tehran’s proxies from recovering and launching new massacres like the one Hamas carried out Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas thugs slaughtered 1,200 people that day, mostly Jewish civilians, in the worst pogrom since World War II.
‘Death to Israel. Curse on the Jews.’
The Houthis are a reactionary armed group based on an extended clan in northwestern Yemen, who follow the Zaydi branch of Shiite Islam. Even though Zaydis make up just 35% of Yemen’s population, the Houthis at first gained some wider support because of their opposition to the corrupt capitalist government of Yemen President Ali Saleh, who was backed by Washington.
But far from fighting to defend the interests of workers and farmers there, the Houthis promote Jew-hating violence, highlighted by their slogan “God is great. Death to America. Death to Israel. Curse on the Jews. Victory to Islam.” Weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7 pogrom in 2023, the Houthis began launching attacks targeting Israel.
With funding, arms and training from Tehran, the Houthis have been fighting a Saudi-backed government for control of Yemen for more than a decade. Before the Houthis’ latest advances, 70% of Yemen’s population lived in areas under Houthi control. Some 150,000 people have died in the war there since 2014, when the Houthis seized Sanaa, the capital, from the government.
Agriculture has been distorted by the war and the Houthi advances. A major cash crop is khat, a mild narcotic, despite widespread hunger and the need to grow food.
With little industry and oil production mostly shutdown, some 35% of the country’s income today comes from remittances sent by relatives living abroad, a higher percentage than all but two other countries in the world. Along with its funding from Tehran, the Houthis finance their operations by heavily taxing imports.
The group was able to make its recent gains by taking advantage of the weakness of the pro-government forces and divisions between the Saudi capitalist monarchy and the rulers of the United Arab Emirates, which back rival forces fighting for control of the parts of Yemen not under Houthi rule. The Emirates pulled out its last remaining troops in Yemen after Saudi Arabia bombed a UAE weapons shipment.
As Houthi forces advanced this month, the Yemeni government appealed to Washington and Saudi Arabia for airstrikes to block their onslaught. But those airstrikes never came.
The pro-government forces withdrew without a fight from some towns before the Houthis arrived.
Trump refuses to strike Yemen
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, reluctant to provoke even greater Houthi retaliation on Saudi Arabia, called President Donald Trump twice on Sept. 10 to request U.S. airstrikes on the Houthis’ advance, but Trump refused.
“The Houthis called us, and they don’t want to fight with us,” Trump told reporters Sept. 12.
The Houthis are “letting most ships go through,” Trump said. “There’s just one country that they’re not too happy with,” a reference to Saudi Arabia, claiming, “We’ll get that straightened out.”
This underscores the U.S. imperialists’ goals in the Middle East. They want to advance their plunder of the oil, gas and other natural resources in the region and their exploitation of the labor of working people there, with little concern for the interests of their “allies,” like the capitalist rulers of Saudi Arabia, and none for the lives of Jews in Israel. The Trump administration’s overall aim is to reach an agreement with Tehran and its allies that shores up U.S. profits.
While the U.S. rulers so far are avoiding deeper intervention in Yemen, they are maintaining their blockade of Iranian ports, which is having a devastating impact on the conditions of working people in Iran.
On Sept. 7 the regime in Tehran doubled the price of gasoline for some users and other prices are skyrocketing. Shortages have left some drivers stranded. Angry over the price hikes and shortages, taxi, truck, and food delivery workers have held strikes. The fuel cuts have left them unable to work for a third of every month, reported taxi drivers in the eastern Iranian province of Kerman.