UN Security Council Convenes Second Emergency Session After Houthis Seize Red Sea Islands

Chokepoints have long magnified local wars into global crises: the 1956 Suez Crisis shut the canal for months, and the 1984-88 Iran–Iraq “Tanker War” saw over 400 ships attacked in the Gulf. Today’s Bab al-Mandab flare-up reprises that pattern—an internal Yemeni struggle instantly threatens Europe-Asia trade, oil prices and, by extension, food-import-dependent states in Africa. The Houthis’ island grab signals how non-state actors can now project power across maritime spaces once dominated by navies, exploiting cheap drones and missiles supplied by external patrons. Whether the Council’s calls matter depends on larger trends: a decade-long Saudi-Iran proxy rivalry, the erosion of U.S. maritime primacy, and a rules-based order already fraying in Ukraine and the South China Sea. If left unchecked, episodic strikes could normalise the weaponisation of global supply arteries—much as piracy off Somalia evolved after 2005—reshaping insurance costs, trade routes, and even the viability of energy transitions over the next century.