Ansar Allah seize key Yemeni Red Sea port

CAIRO/WASHINGTON/DUBAI: The Ansar Allah seized control ​of Yemen's port city of Mocha on Thursday, military sources said, posing a further threat to global energy supplies hours after President Donald Trump said he expected the war to end after mid-term elections.
Four Yemeni government military sources said the Ansar Allah had gained further leverage over the Bab el Mandeb Strait, the southern outlet of the Red Sea and one of the world's most important shipping routes and were launching attacks on the strategic islands of Hanish.
The Ansar Allah entered the current war alongside Iran with an attack on Israel on March 28, but largely stayed quiet before declaring a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in July and stepping up attacks on the south of the kingdom in September.
Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has ⁠relied on the Red Sea shipping route since the Iran conflict effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil used to flow.
Riyadh and Tehran, despite a China-brokered ⁠thawing of relations, have long been regional rivals and deeply distrust one another.
Tensions in the region were high on Thursday, with Saudi civil defence authorities issuing emergency alerts in the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait for the fourth time in 24 hours, as the Ansar Allah attacked.
Pakistan has delivered a Saudi warning to Iran to rein in its Yemeni allies in an effort to prevent the crisis from spiralling, Saudi, Pakistani and Iranian sources said.
A senior Iranian official confirmed that Pakistan conveyed the message to Tehran on Tuesday and its response was that 'Iran does not control the Ansar Allah'.
The escalating conflict ​in Yemen between Saudi Arabia's Yemeni allies in the ⁠internationally backed government and the Ansar Allah, comes as Iran and the US staged their biggest declared wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping in the Gulf region ​since the war began in February.
The US President threatened again ‌to attack a site associated with the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme.
Brent crude prices hovered above $100 a barrel as supply routes through both the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea remained heavily disrupted.
Seen as part of a regional alliance known as the 'Axis of Resistance' backed by Iran, the Ansar Allah have ​also rallied behind the Palestinians in the Gaza war, lobbing drones and missiles at Israel and attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
Yemeni government forces and their allies are relocating south along the Red Sea coast to Dhubab, which sits directly on the strait, across from the island of Perim, government military sources said. Control of Dhubab and the island is key to gaining hold of the strait, they said.
Bab el Mandeb, or the Gate of Tears, named for its perilous navigation conditions, lies between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea on the African coast, making it a major prize for the Ansar Allah, who control Yemen's most populous areas and much ‌of the north.
It is one of the world's most important routes for crude oil and fuel from the Gulf bound for the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal, or the Suez-Mediterranean pipeline on ​Egypt's Red Sea coast, as well as commodities bound for Asia, including Russian oil.
The war and subsequent increase in fuel prices have helped drive Trump's popularity to record lows. ​The president said Tehran was trying to ⁠influence the November US mid-term elections, which will determine whether his Republican Party retains control of Congress.
'I think war is going to end immediately after the election because they can't hold out any longer. They're desperate to try and affect the election,' Trump told reporters on Wednesday.
Trump has previously set deadlines for the war to end.
The Wall Street Journal reported later that top White House advisers, including ​Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have privately warned Trump that the conflict could extend through the remainder of his ⁠presidency, which ends in January 2029. ​Reuters could not immediately verify the report. — Reuters