Fereydoun Nadimi, a defense and security affairs analyst, said that the Houthis’ advance in Bab al-Mandab, although politically and economically important, does not create any fundamental change in the group’s ability to disrupt maritime shipping in the short term, because the Houthis already had such a capability before.

He described the attack on the pumping station of Saudi Arabia’s oil pipeline as a more important development and said that the attack shows that Saudi Arabia’s energy infrastructure remains vulnerable and could affect oil exports, energy prices, and the war’s equations.