ON THURSDAY, the Houthi armed forces launched a rapid attack along Yemen’s western coast seizing control of Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast, putting this vital global shipping corridor under their control.
On that day, Houthi forces seized the last two islands in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait that remained under the control of the Saudi Arabia backed forces.
By Friday, the Houthi army had advanced and seized the port city of Mocha and then the strategic island of Perim, securing control over the Bab al-Mandeb Strait which is on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula from the Strait of Hormuz.
This effectively gives Iran and its Houthi allies control over the world’s largest transit point for oil that will send oil prices across the world spiralling upwards.
This latest advance came after days of intense fighting between the Houthis’ Armed Forces (YAF) and Saudi-backed forces belonging to the Aden-based so-called Presidential Leadership Council, which is recognised by the US as the ‘official’ government of Yemen.
The Saudi supported forces fled, with the Saudi ruler Mohamed bin Salman ringing US president Donald Trump twice on Thursday to beg the US to carry out airstrikes against the Houthis, only to be turned down on both occasions.
The US media has reported that American military and civilian officials are insisting that Trump is focused on his failed attempts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and is unwilling to commit America’s dwindling military forces to fighting in Yemen.
Trump told reporters on his visit to Ireland at the weekend that the Iran war ‘will end soon’ and the Houthi crisis ‘will be straightened out’.
In reality, the ‘mighty’ US military war machine is facing defeat at the hands of the Iranian people and is in no position to rescue the Saudi monarchy.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter and has relied on the Red Sea as a transit route since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz through which 20% of oil used to flow.
About 2% of the world’s goods are also typically shipped through the Red Sea, making it a vital geopolitical chokepoint.
Saudi Arabia also announced it was shutting down a crucial East-West pipeline which it used to export oil after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
This closure was blamed on a drone attack which the Saudis said came from a group in Iraq aligned with the ‘Axis of Resistance’.
While Trump attempted to ‘calm’ the markets down by claiming the imperialist war with Iran would soon be over and the closure of the Red Sea route would soon be sorted out, the effect on oil prices was a dramatic spike to $108 a barrel on Friday.
This will undoubtedly be the start of a massive increase in the price of oil, gas and other goods that rely on both the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea route, now both firmly under the control of Iran and the Houthis.
Already, the cost of petrol and diesel have reached historically high levels in the US, fuelling the opposition of American workers to the unprovoked war on Iran.
The same is true in the UK and across Europe as workers face acute poverty as the cost-of-living is driven up and inflation spirals out of control.
The workers and masses across the Middle East have shown the way by rising up and delivering massive blows against a bankrupt capitalist system that is in its final stages of imperialist decline.
The working class and youth across the US, UK and Europe must now join in this struggle against the common enemy – a capitalist system that can only offer a future of wars paid for by the working class at home.
The working class in the West must demand their trade unions call immediate general strikes to bring down their capitalist governments and go forward to workers governments and socialism.
Putting an end to capitalism with the victory of the world socialist revolution is the only way forward today.
