Al-Zouba tells US chargé d’affaires that Red Sea security begins with a stronger Yemeni state
Yemen Herald News 
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Yemen’s foreign minister told the top US diplomat to Yemen on Thursday that strengthening state institutions is the cheapest durable way to secure the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Afrah al-Zouba met Neil Hop, chargé d’affaires of the United States Embassy in Yemen, in Riyadh.
The account of the meeting comes from Saba, Yemen’s state news agency. No independent confirmation of what was said has been published.
Al-Zouba said investing in the security of the Yemeni state, and in its capacity to protect its territory, coastlines, ports and territorial waters, was the least costly and most sustainable way to safeguard the strait, the Red Sea and international shipping, the agency reported.
Protecting vessels and answering threats once they reach maritime corridors remained necessary, she said.
But the lasting answer began with enabling the state to hold its own coasts and waters, she said, and with building up the navy and the coast guard.
She called for action against networks smuggling weapons and money to the Houthis.
Investing in the Yemeni state was a direct investment in Red Sea security and in regional and international interests, she said.
Al-Zouba said the government was acting on its sovereign right and its constitutional duty to defend citizens, the armed forces, institutions and territorial integrity.
She said the armed forces would keep Yemeni territory and coastline from being used as a platform to threaten neighbouring countries and international navigation.
She warned of continued Iranian support and arming of the Houthis, and of the group’s push toward Bab al-Mandab. Iran denies arming the group.
The resulting risks ran beyond Yemen to the region, the Red Sea and global trade, she said.
Al-Zouba thanked the United States for its partnership and asked for continued cooperation on state institutions, counter-terrorism and smuggling.
Hop restated Washington’s position on the escalation, according to Saba. He said the Houthis and their Iranian backers had underestimated the resolve of the Yemeni government, its armed forces and its people.
He said the group’s actions had fuelled the escalation with documented Iranian support, the agency reported.
The Houthis reject that account. A spokesman, Mohammed Abdul Salam, has described the group’s coastal offensive as a national operation asserting Yemeni sovereignty.
The meeting fell on the day Houthi forces took the Red Sea city of Mocha. Government troops withdrew, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters, each citing its own sources.
Tariq Saleh, a member of the Presidential Leadership Council, called the pullback a tactical withdrawal to reorganise his forces.
Mocha lies on the coast north of Bab al-Mandab. The strait is about 29 kilometres across at its narrowest point, and between 10 and 12 per cent of global trade passes through it.
Rashad al-Alimi, who chairs the council, said the situation at the port and the strait was not a purely Yemeni matter and called for international action.
Wolfgang Pusztai, a defence analyst, said the capture of Mocha lets the Houthis threaten the road to Taiz and reach almost the whole Yemeni Red Sea coast. He told Al Jazeera the strait is narrow enough to be covered by artillery alone.
Government field commanders in Taiz and on the coast said efforts were under way to retake the city.
Abdulaziz Alghashian, a Saudi foreign policy analyst, said the speed of the advance owed less to Houthi strength than to disarray among the anti-Houthi forces.
The Supreme Political Council, the Houthi-led authority in Sanaa, said fighting on the western coast had stopped after government reinforcements were pushed back. It asked states concerned with maritime security to press Saudi Arabia against sending more troops to Mocha.
Houthi-run Saba said Saudi forces carried out a further 40 air strikes on Thursday, on Taiz, Hodeidah, al-Jawf and Marib governorates.
The Houthis have also taken Zuqar Island in the southern Red Sea, CNN reported, after rocket fire and a ground assault.
Rajeh Badi, Yemen’s ambassador to Qatar, accused Iran of restarting the war after a lull of about five years.
Al-Zouba separately sent a message to the UN Security Council this week seeking a firm international position on the western coast.
Hans Grundberg, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, warned this week that the fighting risks widening into a broader war.
Fighting spread along the western coast from Sept. 3, after a truce agreed in 2022 collapsed in July. More than 300 people have been killed in the renewed offensives, according to tallies compiled from both sides.
The International Organization for Migration said about 18,500 people were displaced in Taiz and Hodeidah governorates in the first days of the escalation.
The Houthis have also struck targets inside Saudi Arabia. The Saudi-led coalition said an attack on Tuesday wounded 73 people and set fires at energy sites in the kingdom’s south.
The United Nations humanitarian plan for Yemen, issued in March, put more than 22 million people in need of assistance and 18.3 million in acute food insecurity. It sought 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million of them.
Al-Zouba became foreign minister in July, the first woman appointed to the post.
Hop took up his role on Aug. 5. The US mission to Yemen has worked from outside the country since its embassy in Sanaa suspended operations in 2015.
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