Yemen’s Houthi rebels are making a concerted drive to take full control of the country’s Red Sea coast, claiming control of the key port of Mocha, in the most serious wave of fighting with the Saudi-backed government in years.

Axar.az reports, citing The Guardian, that seizure of the coast would be a strategic disaster for Saudi Arabia and the US, taking Iran and its proxies closer to full control of two chokepoints for western shipping on opposite sides of the Arabian peninsula: the Bab al-Mandeb at the southern end of the Red Sea and the strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.

Observers have said a reduction in hostilities – the most intense since the UN-sponsored ceasefire of April 2022 put an end to major military exchanges – now seems unlikely in what is seen as an attempt by the Houthis to open a second front in the Iran-US war, alongside the battle for control of Hormuz.

The Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), a London-based defence and security thinktank, said the situation in Yemen was spiralling out of control, adding that the UN-recognised Yemeni government was opening new fronts against the Houthis in the hope it could put more pressure on the rebels than they could withstand