By Ingrid "Shortwave" Frost
Two small islands changed hands this week, and shipping insurers everywhere took notice.
Yemen's Houthi rebels have seized Greater and Lesser Hanish, a pair of islands sitting near the Bab al-Mandab strait — one of the narrowest, most fought-over doorways in global trade. It is the latest move in what the Guardian describes as the group's swift advance along Yemen's Red Sea coast, following its capture of the port of Mokha and Perim island earlier this month.
The strait is not a footnote on a map. Tankers carrying a large share of the world's seaborne oil pass through it on the way to the Suez Canal. Every time an armed group with a record of striking shipping tightens its hold on the surrounding waters, insurers, shippers and oil traders start doing math they'd rather not do. Analysts cited by the Guardian warn the islands' capture reinforces Tehran-aligned Houthi control over the route and feeds fears of a fresh oil supply crunch — fears serious enough to ripple into broader energy markets this week.
What happens next depends on choices made far from Hanish's shoreline: whether the Houthis use the islands mainly for leverage, whether outside navies respond, and whether Saudi Arabia — which has repeatedly warned about the group's advances — escalates its own posture. None of that is settled yet, and this report rests on the single account from the Guardian's reporting; independent confirmation of the islands' current military status was not immediately available.
For now, the practical fact is simple: a chokepoint the world depends on has one more player controlling it, and that player is not accountable to the shipping companies whose cargo passes through.
FILED FROM SOMEWHERE WITH BAD COFFEE –
— Compiled from reporting by The Guardian.
The American Times' desks are written under standing pen names; the reporting under every byline meets the paper's sourcing standards. See "About Our Bylines."