Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCI section in Israel/Occupied Palestine) 13.09.2026
The American blockade continues to restrict Tehran’s oil exports. However, the United States is unable to protect Western ships trying to bypass the Iran blockade. At the same time, the Houthis took control of Bab-el-Mandeb.
Iran reported that an Iranian commercial vessel was hit in the early hours of Sunday morning off the island of Qassem in the Strait of Hormuz. One person was killed and three others were injured. Earlier, Britain’s Maritime Trade Operations Agency reported that a vessel was hit by an unidentified launch while passing through the strait.
It seems that in recent weeks, the United States has succeeded in weakening Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, and harming Iran’s oil exports. The agreement reached in June collapsed quickly, and since then there has been no diplomatic progress. The low-intensity fighting continues, and it seems that the United States has no exit strategy.
The growing economic pressure on Iran has not sparked an uprising, and Iran may choose military escalation rather than surrender. At the same time, the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen stepped up their attacks against Saudi Arabia, once again raising oil prices –to $103 a barrel. They captured the strategic Red Sea city of al-Mukha and gained control of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
“Unfortunately, the U.S. is not winning the war with Iran, despite its limited success in loosening Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz and despite the destructive impact on Iran’s economy,” Mona Yacobian, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told the AP. Iran is showing no signs of retreating, instead proving that it is willing not only to fight back, but also to escalate wherever it can. The war is expected to continue.” She said.
The tightening of the blockade and the new U.S. sanctions are taking a heavy toll on Iran’s economy, leading to higher prices and leading to even longer queues at gas stations. So far, however, the pressure has not led Iran’s leaders to offer concessions regarding the Strait of Hormuz, its nuclear program, or its support for anti-American and anti-Zionist movements in the region.
Iran continues to attack ships in the Strait, leading to limited U.S. attacks on its coastal areas, and then an Iranian response in the form of missile attacks on Arab countries hosting U.S. forces.
At the same time, as noted, the Houthis launched a wave of attacks against oil facilities in Saudi Arabia this week. The Houthis’ lightning advance threatens the main shipping route in the Red Sea. Against the backdrop of the complex situation in Hormuz, drone attacks, attributed to the pro-Iranian militias operating in Iraq, led to the closure of a major oil pipeline that passes through Saudi Arabia. This is a nightmare scenario for Saudi Arabia, and it has already caused a stir in markets around the world.
The United States, the Saudis’ most important ally and relied upon, is both unpredictable and unreliable. President Trump seems hesitant to expand the war that is hurting his and the Republican Party’s popularity ahead of the congressional elections. For Iran, the rebels’ advance and the closure of the oil pipeline are increasing global economic pressure on the United States.
So far, Saudi Arabia has managed to avoid some of the severe consequences of the war in the Gulf by pumping its oil through the Arabian Peninsula to the Red Sea, from where it can be exported to Europe via Egypt, via the SUMED pipeline and the Suez Canal, or to Asia via a route that passes through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and from there to the Indian Ocean.
But tensions with the Houthis flared up again in July, prompting the rebels to declare a blockade of Saudi ships and resume large-scale attacks on them for the first time in four years. In the past two days, the Houthis have taken control of the port city of Al-Mukha and an island in the Red Sea, significantly improving their ability to block Saudi oil shipments through Bab al-Mandeb.
Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that it had shut down an oil pipeline carrying out major oil fields in the east of the country to the Red Sea in the west, following drone attacks from Iraq. Regional sources recently told the Associated Press that the Houthis had helped Iraqi militias carry out the attacks.
Saudi Arabia has been fighting the Houthis since 2015, but its allies have made little progress on the ground. The war has killed some 150,000 people and pushed Yemen to the brink of starvation. The Houthis’ recent gains are increasing pressure on Riyadh, but all options come at a significant price, the outcome of which is uncertain.
Saudi Arabia could step up its attacks and try to push back the Houthis, but this would prolong the conflict and lead to heavier Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure. The Houthis now possess more sophisticated weapons than they had in the past, and the Saudis apparently have fewer interceptor missiles in the wake of the U.S.-Iran war.
The Saudis could also try to reach a diplomatic solution with the Houthis or with Tehran. But the Houthis are demanding the lifting of the blockade, and Iran has little interest in stabilizing the region without obtaining significant concessions from the United States.
For decades, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states relied on American security guarantees. However, these were eroded during the Trump era, with the United States launching airstrikes against the Houthis in January 2024, during the Biden administration, and these continued until January 2025. Trump launched an air campaign against the rebels in March last year, in response to an attack on ships in the Red Sea linked to the Gaza war. But now, U.S. forces are deployed around the Strait of Hormuz, and the protracted fighting has weighed considerably on the U.S. military and reduced its stockpile of advanced interceptor missiles. The American sailors who didn’t set foot on the ground for hundreds of days are in depression.
As the U.S is decaying and no longer the only superpower, Trump wants to control Latin America and is ready to give up U.S control in other parts of the world. This is bad development for the Zionist monster.
The war is also unpopular in the United States, eroding support for Trump after he promised to keep the country away from wars in the Middle East. Launching another military campaign in Yemen could exacerbate Republicans’ difficulties in the races close to Congress and the Senate in November of this year. This may end the full support for Israel as colonel Douglas McGregor, who previously served as a senior advisor to the US Department of Defense said that “it is hard to believe that Israel will survive as a nation-state”.