I covered the Iran War for Naked Capitalism today.
Today’s Iran War update starts with a thousand words worth of NY Times front page from Thursday evening. Not a good day for the Empire and its fortunes.
Ansar Allah On a Roll
Yesterday, Yves left us with Ansar Allah “on the front foot” at Camp Khalid and the Taizz–Mokha road, and flagged the Bab el-Mandeb advance as reported but unconfirmed.
Ansar Allah continued its roll Thursday, seizing what Al Jazeera called the “strategic Red Sea city of Mocha”. They also explained why Mocha matters in a separate piece:
Mocha’s geography makes its capture a global concern. The city sits approximately 75km (47 miles) north of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
Known as the Gate of Tears, this narrow passage is a critical artery for crude oil and fuel travelling from the Gulf to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal, as well as for Asian commodities and Russian oil.
Al Jazeera’s Yousef Mawry explained that controlling Mocha could give the Houthis a “stranglehold along the Bab al-Mandeb”.
Furthermore, it severs critical anti-Houthi supply lines, including “the road linking Mocha with Taiz” running south from Mocha, and supply lines through Mocha’s port.
“This is a turning point right now in the war,” defence policy analyst Wolfgang Pusztai told Al Jazeera. “This might lead to a breakdown of the government forces in the southern part of Yemen.”
“The port of Mocha was the last harbour fully under control of the internationally recognised government,” Pusztai said.
Al Jazeera also had a cool map (keep in mind the Ansar Allah-controlled parts of Yemen contain a large majority of the population):
