Yemen War: Houthis Advance as Saudi Forces Counterattack — SkimNews
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- Houthis have made territorial gains across Yemen since July, tightened control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, announced a blockade of Saudi ports, and attacked oil tankers, Saudi oil facilities, and Riyadh's main airport.
- Saudi Arabia and Yemeni government forces launched a counteroffensive to retake Houthi-held territory; Riyadh asked Washington for airstrikes, but Trump declined, offering only intelligence and military analyst support.
- Turkey and Pakistan agreed to activate their newly signed mutual defense pact and deploy troops to help defend Saudi Arabia if attacked, after weeks of apparent hesitation over not wanting to offend Iran, Russia, and China.
- A recent attack halted oil pumping through the East-West Pipeline that Riyadh has been using to export crude via Bab el-Mandeb since the Strait of Hormuz closure, compounding expected supply disruptions from the Houthi blockade of Saudi ports.
- The renewed fighting has killed more than 800 people, injured 3,000, and displaced 158,000 in Yemen, on top of the hundreds of thousands of deaths since the civil war and Saudi-led intervention began in 2014–15.
- Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on October 4 the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen fully until the US meets Iranian demands: a ceasefire on all fronts, lifting the US blockade of Iranian ports, and unfreezing Iranian assets.
Why it matters: Yemen's escalation creates a second energy chokepoint on top of the Strait of Hormuz standoff, with the Bab el-Mandeb now also under Houthi pressure via the East-West Pipeline shutdown. Trump's refusal to join the airstrike campaign pushes Riyadh toward new partners: Turkey and Pakistan activating a mutual defense pact that draws two nuclear-armed states into the theater, complicating any US-Iran negotiated deal by adding more veto players to the table.
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