A sharp escalation by the Houthis against Saudi Arabia, coupled with their advance toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, prompted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to ask President Donald Trump for help in launching direct strikes against the Iran-backed group.
According to U.S. officials cited by Axios, Trump declined the request. Instead, the administration offered to share intelligence with Riyadh and support any targeting operations Saudi Arabia chose to undertake independently.
After Bin Salman made his request, he met Monday in Jeddah with Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, to discuss regional developments, according to Saudi state television.
The Houthi advance has put Washington in a difficult position. Their control of the Bab el-Mandeb, one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints, threatens to push global energy prices higher. But their advances come at a time when the Trump administration is seeking to avoid further direct military involvement.
A senior U.S. official told MBN that Washington would not intervene directly as long as the Houthis adhere to a 2025 ceasefire agreement that included a pledge not to target U.S. ships.
The Houthis have previously attacked ships in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb, beginning in 2023 in what they described at the time as “support for Gaza.” Washington responded by launching a military operation, “Rough Rider,” against Houthi targets in Yemen. The operation ended with the 2025 ceasefire agreement.
The U.S. official said the Houthis saw during operation “Rough Rider” that President Trump “will take necessary action to protect freedom of navigation and U.S commercial shipping from Houthi terrorist attacks.”
The administration is “focused on protecting our core national security interests, such as ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, while empowering our regional partners to take the lead in managing and resolving regional security challenges,” the official said, adding that there is an “continuous dialogue with Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government regarding regional stability.”
Trump said Saturday that he had spoken with the Saudi crown prince and that the Houthis had also contacted the administration, asking Washington not to intervene in the Yemen war.
Last week, the Houthis seized coastal positions along the Red Sea as well as Perim Island, in the heart of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, bringing them closer to shipping traffic through the strategic waterway. The strait carries roughly 12% of the global seaborne oil trade and about 8% of the look global liquefied natural gas trade.
Soon after taking control of areas overlooking the Bab el-Mandeb, the Houthis, whom Washington designates as a terrorist organization, announced that they would maintain what they called a “naval blockade” of Saudi vessels. They said, however, that shipping remained “safe for other vessels and companies.”
In comments to MBN, April Longley Alley, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute whose research focuses on Yemen and the Gulf, said the Trump administration “is reluctant to take direct military action because Washington wants to protect its bilateral truce with the Houthis that has been in place since 2025.”
Bab el-Mandeb is a strategically important waterway between Yemen, Djibouti and Eritrea, at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. Its importance stems from its position in global trade, linking routes through the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean.
At the same time that the Houthis seized territory overlooking the strait, drones launched from Iraq attacked a Saudi oil pipeline that the kingdom uses to export crude through the Red Sea rather than the Strait of Hormuz, where shipping has been imperiled by Iran. Saudi Arabia said it had suspended operations on the pipeline as a precaution.
Following the latest developments, crude oil prices jumped more than 4% on Monday when markets reopened after the weekend, with Brent futures rising above $109 a barrel.
If the Houthis were to effectively close the Bab el-Mandeb, the move could constrain roughly 7% of global oil supplies, according to Reuters data, and further disrupt one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes. Reuters has also reported that the latest escalation is already affecting Saudi oil exports and global shipping flows.
The Institute for the Study of War, in a report published Sept. 11, said allowing the Houthis to consolidate control of the Bab el-Mandeb would be “unacceptable” for U.S. national security and economic interests.
The Houthis could use their newly captured positions to deploy weapons for targeting ships from locations closer to the strait than those they previously used. The risk has grown as the group has expanded its ability to strike shipping in recent years. The Houthis possess a range of self-propelled and towed artillery, some of which have an effective range of up to 17 kilometers.
The Institute for the Study of War report cited a Houthi military commander as saying the group could deploy artillery to along the newly captured Yemeni coastline to target vessels passing through the Bab el-Mandeb. It added that the Houthi threat to shipping through the strait gives Iran “an alternative means of destabilizing global energy markets, raising shipping risks, increasing insurance costs, and straining military resources — all without the need to deploy a large naval fleet.”
Securing shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb is more difficult than securing the Strait of Hormuz because the waterway is narrower. That makes the creation of protected shipping lanes off the coast, similar to the U.S.-backed alternative route off Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, appear unlikely, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
“Washington has unfinished business with Iran and around the Strait of Hormuz and does not want to open another front, especially before the mid-term elections,” Longley Alley said.
Trump said the Houthis were allowing most ships to pass through the Bab el-Mandeb and that “there is only one country they are not happy with, and we will settle the matter,” referring to Saudi Arabia.
Longley Alley said “the Houthis want to keep the U.S. out of the flight so that they can focus their energies on Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia’s Yemeni partners.”
Reuters, citing U.S. officials, reported that confronting the Houthis could require significant naval and air resources and could drain or redirect U.S. intelligence capabilities, given the need to locate Houthi positions that have shifted since last year. The officials also warned that intercepting Houthi missiles and drones could deplete U.S. stocks of munitions and interceptors.
A senior administration official rejected concerns that the United States could exhaust its resources, saying the U.S. military “has enough and more than enough munitions and stockpiles to meet all the strategic objectives of the commander in chief, and more.”
Adapted and translated from the original Arabic.
