The U.S. has hit back against threats to block another Middle East waterway by Iranian terror proxy, the Houthis. Earlier this week, the group declared a complete ban on Israeli-owned ships using the Red Sea, declaring them to be ‘legitimate targets.’ The Red Sea and the waterway through its narrow Bab-el Mandeb Strait has become the main route for oil to ship out of the Middle East to Asia since the Strait of Hormuz has effectively stopped functioning as the main route of navigation for shipping.

Expert Analysis

Edmund Fitton-Brown, a senior fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital, ‘The Houthis have indeed risen to the challenge, at least verbally. In common with much ‘Axis of Resistance’ rhetoric at present, the intention appears to be to leverage U.S. political nervousness and market volatility, and to drive a wedge between the Americans and the Israelis.’ Fitton-Brown, a former U.K. ambassador to Yemen, added, ‘Provided the allies keep talking to each other, the Israelis respond proportionately, as they have done, and the Iranians continue to provoke President Trump with actions like the downing of the helicopter, these tactics are unlikely to achieve significant success.’

Fitton-Brown also stated, ‘It will be interesting if the Houthis do go all in, and resume their campaign against Red Sea shipping with full intensity,’ adding, ‘This will draw international anger and likely result in Israeli and U.S. strikes on Sana’a and Hodeida. There is potential for a general escalation if this happens, albeit one in which the allies have a clear military advantage.’ Such actions come as reports emerge that Ethiopia, the Red Sea region’s most populous country, is stepping up as a major U.S. ally against Islamic terrorism.

U.S.-Ethiopia Relations

While landlocked, Ethiopia has a population of some 130 million, making it the largest nation in the Horn of Africa. Located near parts of the Red Sea corridor, the country is roughly 60% Christian, according to a recent report by the Association of Religion Data Archives. Ethiopian researcher Blen M. Diriba told Fox News Digital that the country acts as a strategic roadblock or ‘a keystone state’ on the Islamist expansionist ‘highway’ that has formed all the way from Iran to Sudan.

Diriba, executive director of the Horn Review — an Addis Ababa-based research and publication think tank — told Fox News Digital that ‘Ethiopia, long a frontline U.S. security partner, now sits at the center of an expanding pressure zone where maritime disruption, insurgent violence, terrorist threats, and proxy competition converge.’ Diriba added, ‘Iran’s Bab el-Mandeb threat transforms the Horn of Africa into a militarized frontline, placing Ethiopia at the center of a choke point crisis. With Iranian influence radiating through conflict ecosystems in Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia, the region is beginning to resemble a continuous arc of instability stretching from the Arabian Peninsula into East Africa.’

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.