Strait Talk on the Houthis

The October 7 attack against Israel was carried out by Hamas with support from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Other Tehran proxies include Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Yemen-based Ansar Allah, better known as the Houthi rebels. Although President Trump designated them as a foreign terrorist organization, President Biden removed them from that blacklist.

Since November, the Houthis have used Tehran-supplied weapons to attack more than 20 commercial vessels traveling through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, gateway to the Red Sea and Suez Canal and therefore one of the most economically and strategically important waterways in the world. 

In response to these aggressions, the Pentagon has organized a U.S.-led naval coalition: Operation Prosperity Guardian.

Does the U.S. now have this threat to freedom of the seas under control? If not, what should be the plan? Host Cliff May asks FDD experts RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery and Bradley Bowman.

They discuss coalition’s defense approach, and why it doesn’t appear to be working; why some of the world’s biggest commercial fleets are acquiescing to the Houthi’s stranglehold on the strait; whether the U.S. is more concerned with provoking Iran’s rulers than with enforcing freedom of the seas; why “deterring by denial” rather than “deterring by punishment” encourages escalation; why the Houthis pose a direct threat to core American interests; and why the recent Houthi attacks have little if anything to do with Israel’s war against Hamas and are instead “an attack on the international system.”