Yemen's vice president Abdullah Abdulkader Al Alimi-Bawzer urged stronger international support against the Houthis at the UN General Assembly, saying Yemen cannot protect the waterway alone and calling for a strategic partnership.
At the UN earlier, 80 states condemned the Houthis' decision to resume the conflict and their ongoing attacks on Saudi Arabia and in the Red Sea. The article says the group recently seized Yemen's west coast in an offensive, gaining access to Bab al-Mandab at the Red Sea's entrance.
Al Alimi-Bawzer said the Houthis had turned one of the world's most important waterways into a tool of pressure and bargaining in Iran's confrontation with the world. The article says Bab al-Mandab's importance has grown amid the Strait of Hormuz crisis, where passage has been severely restricted since the US launched a war on Iran, as Tehran seeks to control transit.
