France took part in Operation Prosperity Guardian, a US-led coalition with Britain, Canada and Italy, after Yemen's Houthis imposed an effective blockade on shipping through the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait. The piece describes that waterway as a route for roughly 12% of global trade.
The opinion article says the Houthis, a Zaidi-Shia group controlling northwestern Yemen and acting as an Iranian proxy, moved asymmetric warfare from Yemen's mountains to the sea. It cites a recent ballistic-missile barrage into Saudi Arabia that hit Riyadh International Airport, killing 12 people, including a US citizen, wounding hundreds and badly damaging the terminals. The Houthi force is estimated at 400,000 fighters, with about 20,000 in the core and many trained for coastal and naval operations.
From 2023 the group combined ballistic, cruise and anti-ship missiles and helicopters with unmanned aircraft and unmanned surface vessels across the Red Sea, the Gulf of Eilat, the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. During the Israel-Hamas war they struck toward Tel Aviv, Haifa and Eilat, about 2,000 kilometres away. In November they carried out a helicopter-borne raid on the Galaxy Leader and attacked ships with commercial or ownership links to Israel and Western countries, as well as ships that would not pay transit tolls. Over the blockade years they attacked more than 100 ships.
Israel first struck the Houthis in Yemen on 20 July 2024 in Operation Long Arm, after a drone hit in Tel Aviv, targeting energy infrastructure and the port of Hodeidah, and has struck them dozens of times since. On 26 April 2024 the MSC Orion was hit by a drone, described as an Iranian Shahed-series model, about 300 to 400 nautical miles from the Horn of Africa and about 600 kilometres from the Yemeni coast. Damage was light and the ship continued.
The article says the Houthis use Iranian intelligence, including the cargo-disguised spy ship MV Behshad and, from 2025, the Iranian navy signals ship Zagros, plus observation networks in Somalia with Al-Shabaab, and in Djibouti and Eritrea. They match ship Automatic Identification System data with Iranian intelligence before launching missiles. A May 2026 Congressional report said direct attacks at sea had stopped because of US operations, sanctions and understandings, Israeli strikes, and likely Iranian instructions to conserve strength. The writer expects traffic through Bab al-Mandab to matter more again amid the Iran-US struggle over the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran is described as ignoring maritime rules and encouraging groups including the Houthis to do the same.
At its narrowest the strait is about 26 kilometres wide. The Houthis used low-flying drones and sea-skimming cruise missiles such as the El-Mandeb 2, an Iranian design adapted by the group, saturation launches of cheap weapons, and floating mines. Container and tanker traffic through the strait and the Suez Canal fell by more than 70%. Maersk and MSC diverted around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope, adding about 12 days to voyages to Israel and raising shipping and insurance costs by roughly 30%. US and British warships used interceptors costing $2 million to $4 million each against drones costing a few thousand dollars. Eilat port is described as nearly paralysed for three years.
A United Nations panel of experts on Yemen found the Houthis raised about $180 million a month, or $2.2 billion a year, from extortion and illegal transit fees, funded and armed by Iran. Ambrey and Lloyd's List reported in April 2026 that senior Houthis discussed formalising Red Sea tolls. Turkiye Today quoted Iranian parliament member Ali Khezrian as saying regional actors had even proposed official Houthi tolls of up to $5 million a ship. Despite coalition and Israeli strikes on leadership, energy sites and ports, the group is still training, smuggling weapons and deepening underground sites in Yemen while fighting a renewed war against the Saudis, and the writer says it will return to sea action when that serves its interests.
The article is by a senior defence and maritime-strategy analyst who is a member of the Institute for Maritime Policy and Strategy and the Dvora Forum.