Morning Note

Yemen’s rebel group, the Houthis, said Thursday they have resumed direct attacks against commercial shipping vessels, this time targeting two Saudi oil tankers navigating the Bab al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea. 

As news of the attacks broke, international oil prices hit $100 per barrel. 

Like the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab al-Mandab Strait is a critical chokepoint for world trade. About 12% of the world’s shipping flows through the strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. If the Houthis were to shut it down completely, that would mark a major escalation and widening of the Iran War. It would also severely cripple the global economy. 

President Trump was forced to threaten the Houthis, whom the U.S. heavily bombed but failed to defeat in 2025. 

“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,” he said Thursday on Truth Social. 

The U.S. military said late Thursday that it had carried out more escalatory strikes against Iran for the 13th consecutive night. Iranian media reported explosions in Bandar Abbas, a port city and hub for transporting military supplies, as well as explosions on Qeshm Island, where Iranian naval assets are stored. A U.S. missile attack on the outskirts of Ahvaz on the Karun River also killed four and wounded others, according to Iranian media. 

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