SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Saudi Arabia, the world's largest exporter of oil, says that it has shut down a crucial pipeline after it was attacked by drones. The kingdom was relying on the east-west pipeline to export oil via the Red Sea, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. But now Saudi Arabia is also facing a growing threat on the Red Sea after Iran-backed Houthi rebels made a series of military gains this week. We're joined now by April Longley Alley, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute and an expert on Yemen. Thanks so much for being with us.
APRIL LONGLEY ALLEY: Thank you for having me.
SIMON: What do we know about the Houthi advances in Yemen over the past few days?
ALLEY: The most important development is that the Houthis have broken front lines in Yemen. And on Thursday, they captured the strategic port city of Mokha, on the Red Sea coast. And then they quickly punched south. And by Friday, they had taken the entire Red Sea coastline, down to the strategic Bab el-Mandeb choke point. And remember, the Houthis are Iranian-backed. They're a militant group, and they control most of North Yemen.
But this did not come out of nowhere. Yemen's war has been heating up, and there's been a series of tit-for-tat escalations between the Houthis on one hand and Saudi Arabia and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government on the other. But what we saw this week and last week was a sharp escalation in violence, you know, at a time when the region's in flux.
SIMON: What will the impact be? As we mentioned, Saudi Arabia has been forced to shut down this key pipeline. What will the impact be on Saudi Arabia and the global economy if it can't get oil through the Red Sea?
ALLEY: It is really huge. I mean, there are just limits to redundancy when it comes to the ability of Aramco to export oil. I mean, they are long-term thinkers, but there are only so many options. So effectively, what it means for the region is that Iran and its allies are now the main power brokers in two critical maritime choke points that are very important to the flow of energy. And that is Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb.
So this gives Iran much more leverage at a time when the Trump administration is already struggling to wind down the Iran war and to manage Strait of Hormuz. This is just existential for Saudi Arabia. They're being squeezed from both sides of the Peninsula right now - Hormuz on one side, Bab el-Mandeb on the other, and now Iraqi militias are also attacking from the north.
And as you said, that Red Sea corridor has become vital to Saudi Arabia in the context of the war with Iran. They have an east-west pipeline that's now shut down that's able to export about 5 million barrels of oil per day at max capacity, and now we have the Houthis squeezing that from the south. And they're going to be forced - they've already been forced to try to export north - right? - through pipelines and through Suez, which just adds a tremendous amount of - two weeks' time to go around the Cape of Good Hope.
SIMON: Axios reports that the Saudi crown prince has called President Trump, urging him to launch strikes against the Houthi rebels. Do you find that likely?
ALLEY: So until now, the U.S. has been hesitant to reenter the Yemen conflict. I mean, let's remember, the U.S. did have a major bombing campaign - Operation Rough Rider - in 2025, and it ended in a bilateral truce between the Houthis and the U.S. And so the U.S. had wanted to maintain this bilateral truce, not wanting to open another front before the midterm elections. They're wanting to kind of at least contain this regional conflict in some way. And so it does seem like, at this point, the bar for at least direct U.S. entry is high, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.
SIMON: You note some of the military action we've seen in the past, and yet the Houthis remain a resilient force. What do you think they'd like to achieve in the coming weeks?
ALLEY: The bigger picture is that the Houthis want to control all of North Yemen and, ideally, Yemen. But this group also has ambitions beyond Yemen, and this is what is so critically important for the region. So they want to control this Red Sea corridor. The Iranians and the Houthis want to create a new reality in the region, a new status quo where they control these critical choke points, where they push the U.S. out of the region. So the order - the regional order is in flux, and they have a vision for where it wants to go.
Now, in terms of the next few weeks, I think they feel like they have the wind at their back, and so they're probably going to try to consolidate the gains they've made on the coast and maybe push into more territory in Yemen.
SIMON: April Longley Alley is a senior fellow at The Washington Institute. Thank you so much for joining us.
ALLEY: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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