Iran and the Houthis are blackmailers, not peace partners
By Caroline Ashford · Reporting from Richmond, Virginia ·
There is a particular kind of arrogance that mistakes extortion for strategy.
Houthis and Iran are using extortion as strategy in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, threatening global commerce to force a seat at the diplomatic table.
SBS News reports the Houthis seized most of Yemen’s Red Sea coast, including the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Instead of liberating land, they have built a blockade. They fire ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi cities like Khamis Mushait, Abha, and Taif, wounding a dozen civilians. This signals that every driver filling a gas tank or shopper buying groceries will pay for Houthi ambition. With oil topping $100 a barrel and the Strait of Hormuz frozen in a diplomatic standoff, the "Axis of Resistance" demands total submission.
Are the Houthis actually clever?
Luciano Zaccara said the Houthis are using "clever" tactics, targeting Saudi wealth to pressure the United States. The argument is that using small, cheap forces to disrupt a giant—asymmetric warfare—forces superpowers to recognize Houthi political will. By strangling the Saudi economy, they seek a shortcut to a peace deal that years of conventional war failed to deliver.
But disruption is not governance. In the Abqaiq–Khurais attack, the Houthis used drones to hit oil infrastructure, turning refineries into pyres to exert economic pressure. They repeated this pattern during Operation Decisive Storm, where missile attacks became the standard response to any attempt to restore the Yemeni government. A strategist builds something that lasts; a vandal simply kicks the load-bearing wall to make the ceiling collapse.
The Suez Blueprint
This is a modern iteration of the Suez Crisis. In the mid-fifties, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal and blocked the waterway to force diplomatic concessions and shift who controlled the region. The mechanism remains the same: seize a maritime chokepoint to turn a local fight into a global crisis. By holding the Bab al-Mandeb and threatening the Strait of Hormuz, Iran and the Houthis hold the world’s energy supply hostage for political legitimacy.
This leverage costs human lives. Al Jazeera reports that since September, 125,000 people—roughly the population of a mid-sized city—have fled their homes in Yemen. This is the Iranian playbook. Whether attacking Saudi Arabia in 2021 or provoking Operation Prosperity Guardian in 2022, the goal is to project power, not to ensure the welfare of Yemeni citizens. They trade the lives of their own people for a better hand in a geopolitical game.
Diplomacy as a Ransom Note
The current stalemate reveals a contradiction. President Donald Trump said Iran wants a deal quickly, but security chief Mohsen Rezaei said there will be no negotiations until Tehran's conditions are met in full. This is a demand for surrender, not a diplomatic opening. Qatar urges dialogue to prevent the southern Red Sea from closing, but dialogue requires that both sides value stability. Iran and the Houthis value only the chaos they can trigger.
Treating blockades as tactics for negotiation only funds the next attack. The Houthis will not stop at the Bab al-Mandeb because the world eventually pays the ransom to keep oil flowing. They will keep hitting the King Khalid airbase and civilian homes because they know that "firm" responses from the Saudi-led coalition—missile strikes followed by diplomatic summits—usually end with a return to the talking table.
We cannot negotiate with a movement that treats forcing a hundred thousand people from their homes as a tactical win. The straits will remain insecure until the cost of the blockade—in terms of military losses and international isolation—exceeds the benefit of the leverage. Until then, the vandals will keep kicking the walls.