Yemen's Ambassador to Qatar Warns of Houthi Advance Toward Bab el-Mandeb Shipping Lane

According to an Al Jazeera report dated September 9, Rajeh Badi, ambassador to Qatar for Yemen's internationally recognized government, warned in his first public interview since assuming his post that the Houthis are advancing toward the Red Sea coastal mountains in Taiz province, attempting to seize strategic positions overlooking the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and threatening one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

Badi told Al Jazeera that the Houthis have advanced to Mokha and Waziya in Taiz province and have taken control of extensive mountain areas overlooking the Red Sea, with the aim of "gaining the high ground to launch more effective strikes and disrupt Red Sea navigation." He said the Yemeni government has responded by opening fronts in Al-Jawf, Marib, and Bayda provinces.

Badi warned that if the Bab el-Mandeb Strait is choked off, global energy and food transport will be impacted. "The threat we now face is real and will not stop at Yemen's borders," he told Al Jazeera. "It threatens the entire region and the entire world. If the Houthis strangle Red Sea shipping, we will face another Strait of Hormuz—and the impact could be even greater."

Al Jazeera noted in its report that the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and leads north to the Suez Canal, making it a vital artery for global energy and food transport. This geographic configuration means the impact of the Yemen conflict extends far beyond its borders, and Saudi Arabia has been drawn into the confrontation.

Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, told Al Jazeera that the Houthis had used ballistic missiles and drones that day to attack the Saudi cities of Khamis Mushait, Abha, and Jizan, but did not release specific casualty figures.

Badi accused the Houthis of seeking to recast the conflict as a war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen through attacks on Saudi territory, civilian infrastructure in southern Saudi Arabia, and Saudi vessels in the Red Sea. "Their calculation is simple: they want to recast this conflict as a Saudi-Yemen war," he told Al Jazeera. Badi claimed that whenever the Houthis suffer heavy blows from Yemeni government forces inside Yemen, they retaliate with missile and drone strikes on Saudi civilian sites, "trying to inflame Yemeni public opinion and make the outside world believe that Yemen is at war with Saudi Arabia."

In analyzing the roots of the conflict, Badi characterized the Houthis as "Iranian proxies," calling it a relationship that Tehran "no longer needs to hide." He listed the Houthis alongside Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces as "one of Iran's key arms in the region," and cited former Yemeni President Hadi's judgment that once Iran controls the Bab el-Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz, "its grip on these two chokepoints will be more powerful than any nuclear arsenal."

Speaking about the prospects for peace, Badi claimed that "all peaceful avenues have been exhausted." "For more than 13 years, we have been holding multiple rounds of dialogue and signing agreements, both inside Yemen and after the Houthis seized Sanaa," he told Al Jazeera. He criticized the Houthis for "burying the peace option," said that peace "is simply not within the mindset of this movement," and claimed that this ultimately forced Yemen onto the path of armed struggle.

At the end of the interview, Badi called on the international community to "stand with us" and eliminate the Houthis as a "scourge." "The world must understand this difficult equation," he said. "The Houthis are an armed proxy, an extension of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. They cannot represent us."