The battle for Yemen: Houthis, Saudi Arabia and the Red Sea

After a week of intense clashes with Yemeni government forces, Yemen’s Houthis plunged across southern Yemen, seizing key points around the Bab el-Mandeb strait.

The success of their operation came as a shock to the Yemeni armed forces, their backers in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, and the wider region, which may now be contending with a double energy shock as another key waterway in the region falls into new hands.

So, to ask how this offensive was so successful, and what it could mean for Yemen’s future as well as the wider conflict in the Middle East, we are joined by Mohammed Albasha of Basha Report Risk Advisory and Yemeni analyst and policy advisor Ibrahim Jalal.