Houthi rebels have completed their takeover of Yemen's entire Red Sea coastline after seizing Mayun Island, a volcanic outcropping in the middle of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, capping a week-long offensive that has left hundreds dead and forced Saudi Arabia to shut down one of its most important oil pipelines.

A senior Yemeni government military official and a Houthi official both confirmed the fall of the 13-square-kilometer island to NPR on Friday, giving the Iran-backed group effective control of the 17-mile-wide chokepoint through which a large share of the world's shipping — and oil — normally passes.

Saudi Arabia's energy ministry confirmed it shut down its critical East-West pipeline as a precaution after officials said drones launched from Iraq struck the line. Riyadh said it would hold off on retaliating, at the request of Iraq's prime minister, but "reserves the right to take all necessary measures," according to Al Jazeera.

Trump: "Probably They Are"

Asked by a reporter in Dublin, where he is on an official visit, whether Iran was behind the pipeline strike, President Trump did not hesitate. "I think they are, probably they are," he said, according to CNN.

Trump also said the Houthis had reached out directly to Washington. "The Houthis called us, and they don't want to fight with us. They don't want us to go after them," he told reporters. Saudi Arabia has separately urged the Trump administration to take military action against the advancing Houthis, according to reporting cited in the same coverage.

"YOU SEE THE FEARS IN THEIR EYES, AND PEOPLE ARE SCARED."

That's how a mission chief for the UN's International Organization for Migration described the human toll. The IOM reports more than 46,000 people were newly displaced in the past week alone — more than double the prior tally. Yemen's broader civil war has killed roughly 150,000 people since 2014, with an estimated 40 million people at risk.

Global shipping traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait has fallen by roughly 60% since Houthi attacks on commercial vessels began in late 2023. Saudi Arabia had responded by more than doubling oil exports through its Red Sea ports to over 5 million barrels a day by early June as a workaround — a buffer that is now itself under threat.

What's Next

Houthi forces have declared that "maritime navigation is safe for all companies except for Saudi vessels" while vowing "escalation for escalation." No large-scale Saudi air campaign has yet been launched to reverse the group's advance, and crude oil prices have climbed above $100 a barrel this week amid the broader escalation.