Saudi Arabia urges Trump: Act now against Iran-backed Houthis!

Perim island is not some far-off rock you can ignore until it’s on fire. It sits in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the choke points that keeps global shipping moving. Now the Houthis have seized it and grabbed key positions along the waterway, and Saudi Arabia is basically saying out loud what everyone in the region already knows: this is Iran’s game, and the bill comes due fast.

The question for Washington isn’t whether the Houthis are trouble. We’ve watched them hit ships, threaten trade, and treat the Red Sea like their personal toll booth. The question is whether we’re going to keep playing whack-a-missile from a distance while Iran’s proxies keep advancing. If you let a militia control a choke point, you don’t “manage” the problem, you inherit it. That’s how you get higher prices at home and a wider war abroad.

Saudi Arabia urging President Trump to act now isn’t charity. It’s self-interest, and that’s fine. Allies are supposed to care about their neighborhoods. The U.S. should care too, because this isn’t just Yemen’s mess. Bab al-Mandab is a lever on the world economy, and Tehran knows it. The Houthis didn’t wake up one morning and decide to become a maritime power on their own.

Direct military action is a serious step, and it should come with a clear goal: break the Houthis’ ability to threaten shipping and make Iran pay a price for using cutouts to do its dirty work. No nation-building. No open-ended “stabilization.” Hit the capability, squeeze the sponsor, and keep the lanes open. That’s the job. Anything softer just invites the next island grab, the next “accidental” strike, the next crisis we pretend we didn’t see coming.