The Iranian-backed Houthi militia seized an island in a choke point of the Red Sea after days of fierce fighting, two Yemeni government officials said Friday, giving Iran and its allies sway over the two main routes for shipping oil out of the Middle East.
The capture of Perim Island came as Saudi Arabia announced that it had shut down a critical oil pipeline, a day after Houthi forces swept into the strategic port city of Mokha in Yemen. Both were major setbacks for the Saudi kingdom, which exports most of its oil through the Red Sea.
The island’s location sits in the middle of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the narrow pathway at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. Its seizure adds a new dimension in the war between the United States and Iran.
The Islamic republic has already largely cut off the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and leveraged that influence to demand concessions from Washington. Now, the Houthi militia, Iran’s ally, has a foothold at a bottleneck in the Red Sea and could further disrupt shipping there.
The island’s capture came after intense ground battles in Yemen as the Houthis have staged a lightning advance against forces allied with the internationally recognized Yemeni government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia. The kingdom has faced frequent Houthi attacks on its tankers and energy facilities, even as its leaders have tried to avoid a direct war with the group, analysts say.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia spoke to President Trump about the escalation in Yemen in calls this week, and urged the United States to take military action against the Houthis, according to officials with knowledge of the conversations. Mr. Trump told him he was not willing to do so, the officials said.
Mr. Trump, however, told the crown prince, the de facto Saudi leader, that he would continue to assist in intelligence and targeting.
A senior administration official said, “The United States is focused on protecting our core national security interests — such as ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.” The official added, “We are in continuous dialogue with Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Yemen Government regarding regional stability.”
In July, as tensions between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis escalated, the group declared a blockade on Saudi ships in the Red Sea, straining oil prices.
The widening clashes in the Middle East in recent days have pushed up oil prices, which surged on Thursday above $109 a barrel for Brent crude, the international benchmark. Oil prices eased to around $104 a barrel on Friday, but are still at their highest point since July.
Ahmed Nagi, a senior analyst for Yemen at the International Crisis Group, said that the Houthi takeover of Perim Island was a “game changer,” enabling the group to more easily destabilize Red Sea shipping.
“In the past, they were creating uncertainty,” he said, but “now they’re controlling everything around Bab al-Mandab, the land and the islands.”
The Saudi government said on Friday that a strategic pipeline that carried oil across the kingdom to its Red Sea ports was also “subjected to several attacks” on Thursday and that the pipeline had been shut down “as a precautionary measure.” The kingdom’s foreign ministry said the pipeline had been hit by several drones launched from Iraq, resulting in some injuries, but did not specify any particular group responsible.
Satellite images obtained on Friday by The New York Times showed a plume of black smoke more than 60 miles long rising from an area close to the pipeline, which allows Saudi Arabia to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
On Friday, Iran’s foreign ministry appeared to offer a statement supporting the Houthis.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran reiterates its principled and consistent position on the need to respect Yemen’s independence, national sovereignty, and territorial integrity,” the ministry said.
The foreign ministry spokesman told Iranian new outlets that “plans were underway” for talks in Oman between Iran and Persian Gulf states on Monday to “discuss regional issues,” including the Strait of Hormuz. Omani officials did not immediately comment.
Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, did not explicitly say whether the Houthis had taken Perim Island. But he asserted in a statement that the “Saudi enemy” — apparently referring to forces allied with the government — had been expelled from more than 5,000 square kilometers, about 2,000 square miles, of territory.
Mr. Saree also said that shipping was safe for all companies except Saudi ones.
Saudi Arabia has not commented publicly on the capture of Perim Island. On Friday, though, the Yemeni government’s forces appeared to announce an air force counteroffensive, warning civilians to avoid roads linking Taiz to Mokha and Mokha to Dhubab, which sits directly on Bab al-Mandab Strait.
For weeks, the Houthis have carried out intermittent attacks on Saudi Arabia, including on energy facilities. This week, the Saudi authorities said 73 civilians had been injured in Houthi attacks on the southern part of the kingdom.
On Friday, the Houthi-controlled broadcaster Al-Masirah said that Saudi Arabia had launched two rounds of airstrikes on the port of Mokha. The Saudi government’s Center for International Communication did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It was unclear exactly when the Houthis reached the island. The Yemeni officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. A spokesman for the Yemeni government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Houthis and the Yemeni government have been at war since 2014, when the militia took over the capital, Sanaa. Soon after, a Saudi-led military coalition began a bombing campaign to try to restore the government to power, plunging the impoverished nation into a devastating war.
A fragile truce, reached in 2022, has unraveled in recent months. Since fighting escalated sharply in Yemen last week, at least 46,000 people have been displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration, a U.N. body.
The pace of the Houthis’ recent blitz has been striking, analysts say. But the offensive itself was not necessarily a surprise.
The Saudi bombing campaign ultimately failed to displace the Houthis. The truce in 2022 left the militants with time and territory to prepare for a major offensive, according to analysts.
“They created new weapons,” said Farea Al-Muslimi, a Yemen specialist at Chatham House, a research institution in London. “They restructured the military. They made a much more brutal and efficient version of the state, by raising taxation and spying on people.”
Simultaneously, calls by the Yemeni government for more munitions, anti-drone technologies, air cover and intelligence support from the world have largely gone unanswered, said Hisham Al-Omeisy, a senior Yemen adviser at the European Institute of Peace.
And a Saudi effort to consolidate Yemen’s fighting units, splintered by regional factions and rivalries, has struggled.
The Houthis “chose a time they could exploit” those fragmented forces, said Ibrahim Jalal, a Yemeni researcher and policy adviser. Taken together, the factors made for what Mr. Al-Omeisy called a “perfect storm.”
Reporting was contributed by Maggie Haberman, Eric Schmitt, Abu Bakr Bashir and Josh Holder.
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