The Strait of Hormuz remains at a virtual standstill because of President Donald Trump’s foolish war, and now, in what represents a new global energy price nightmare, Houthi militants in Yemen have begun to block a separate corridor that is critical for global oil shipping. On Thursday, oil surged past $100 a barrel for the first time since May in response to the news that the war with Iran is on the brink of expanding to a new front. And Trump’s promise to bomb the Houthis should they continue is unlikely to improve the situation.
Those Houthi militants, who are allied with and supported by Iran, announced Monday that they would were enacting a blockade in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait against Saudi Arabia. The Houthis said their blockade is retaliation for airstrikes against a Yemeni airport intended to prevent an Iranian aircraft from landing. (Yemen’s Saudi-backed government claimed credit for the attack.) On Thursday, the Houthis said they had attacked two Saudi oil tankers and successfully warned 10 more to turn back. (Saudi Arabia’s official news agency confirmed at least one tanker was hit.)
Should the Houthis continue to attack ships, Trump ought to be concerned; his record fighting the scrappy militia is not impressive.
The Houthis’ blockade is a huge deal. Before the Iran war, about a fifth of the world’s oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz. Now it’s effectively closed. Saudi Arabia, which had transported the bulk of its oil through the Strait of Hormuz, started moving oil west through a pipeline. From there, Saudi Arabia was sending its oil out through the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Thus, the Houthis’ blockade of the Bab al-Mandab Strait means they have foiled Saudi Arabia’s back-up plan. And it’s not just oil that’s at stake in the waterway. The Associated Press noted that “around 12% of the world’s trade, including a fourth of global container traffic, passes through [the strait], moving between Europe and Asia via Egypt’s Suez Canal.”
Helima Croft, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, told the Financial Times that “extreme pressure” is building across the region and described the pressure on oil markets as “everything, everywhere, all at once.” She told the publication that a regional war could push oil above its 2008 record of about $146 a barrel.
The Houthis said their blockade is a response to a “continued Saudi siege” of Yemen. But because the Houthis are backed by Iran and have reportedly been encouraged by Iran to be ready to block the Red Sea to hit back against the U.S. for targeting Iran’s power infrastructure, the blockade marks the Houthis’ de facto foray into a broader geopolitical conflict. Even if that’s not what the Houthis intended, that’s how Trump is treating it.
“If they do this again, the U.S. will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves, who I am very disappointed with in that they have, until now, acted very professionally and smart,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Thursday.
Should the Houthis continue to attack ships, Trump ought to be concerned; his record fighting the scrappy militia is not impressive. In 2025, after nearly two months of bombardment against the group that cost over $1 billion, the Houthis remained operational, and Trump cut his air campaign short. During that operation, the Houthis shot down a number of $30 million U.S. drones, nearly struck several American fighter jets, and forced an aircraft carrier to turn so abruptly to avoid fire that a $67 million F/A-18E Super Hornet tumbled off the ship. The Houthis’ ability to inflict pain on the U.S. shouldn’t necessarily be seen as purely Trumpian incompetence — former President Joe Biden also failed in his attempt to use naval power to rein in the Houthis
Should the Houthis become a major actor in this war, and the U.S. fights against them, then Trump will burn through military resources at an even quicker rate — while fighting an even more extreme disruption to global oil supply. He entered this war for no intelligible reason, failed to grasp its basic dynamics, and he’s now stuck with a potentially metastasizing conflict with no foreseeable way to win.
Trump chose this war, but as the spiking oil prices reflect, the entire world is paying the price.
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