Yemen's foreign minister-designate Afrah al-Zouba has warned that the Iran-backed Houthi movement is attempting to replicate Tehran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz by seizing control of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait (the narrow waterway connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean), threatening to simultaneously choke off two of the world's most critical maritime corridors. Speaking at the Yemeni embassy in Riyadh, al-Zouba said insufficient international responses to Houthi activities have emboldened the group, which declared a maritime siege on Red Sea shipping to and from Saudi Arabia in July and has since exchanged missile and drone strikes with the kingdom. The warning carries significant economic weight: roughly 30 percent of global container traffic and 12–15 percent of overall world trade passes through the Red Sea, and data already shows a sharp decline in vessels transiting the route.