After the Houthi hint, with America opening a new front… What are Yemen’s capabilities to strike American ports?

The Yemeni American confrontations entered a new trajectory on Thursday, with the US’ decision to open a new front—the economic war. What is Yemen’s ability to respond?

Exclusive – Al-Khabar Al-Yemeni:

Hours after the issuance of the new American State Department statement regarding the port of Hudaydah, Yemen hinted at a similar response.

The new American statement came with the UN mission in Djibouti granting an Indian oil tanker carrying a shipment for the private sector permission to cross into Hudaydah, including threats to target the countries and entities that transport oil to the Yemeni people through the port of Hudaydah, in what seems to be a direct reference to the company.

The statement is considered part of American steps that began from the very first moments of Trump’s inauguration as a new president at the beginning of this year, when he issued a decision to designate the Ansar Allah movement on the terrorism list in response to its campaign in support of Gaza and even reached the point of targeting the port of Hudaydah, the main lifeline for millions of Yemenis in the north and center of the country.

America imposed a blockade on Hudaydah in parallel with the launch of its new military campaign on Yemen about 4 weeks ago, and the escalation came with the failure of the military campaign to contain the Yemeni operations, according to the admission of the American officials themselves, which suggests that Washington is trying to exert economic pressure on Yemen in the hope that this will be beneficial.

Contrary to American expectations of Yemen’s surrender, the official and high-level reactions have been more shocking for the United States, especially with the hint by Mohammed Al-Houthi, a member of the Supreme Political Council, of similar options due to targeting Hudaydah, indicating the possibility of imposing a blockade on American ports, but what is Yemen’s ability to achieve that?

Although Yemen has shown unexpected surprises in recent months of confrontation with US forces and their allies, whether in terms of targeting battleships and aircraft carriers, the recent Yemeni hint suggests that Sana’a may be following a strategy to ban navigation to Israeli ports, which has been the most successful plan so far in besieging the occupation and inflicting it with massive economic losses.

In November 2023, Yemen decided to ban navigation to Israeli ports and actually began seizing ships related to the occupation and its government and then to Zionist businessmen, targeting the most prominent cities of the occupation on the Red Sea and then targeting ships heading to Israeli ports on the Red Sea.

After operations that reached the point of detaining ships and sinking others, it was able to impose a ban on navigation to the occupied ports in Eilat, then moving to navigation in the Mediterranean… And despite the distance between Yemen and the Israeli ports on the Mediterranean, it was relatively successful in closing those ports, either by targeting them directly or by targeting the ships heading to them in the Mediterranean and then targeting ships of all companies that operate trips to the occupation’s ports on the Mediterranean.

In fact, Yemen’s decision to impose a blockade on American ports may be much more effective than the Israeli occupation, as the navigational corridors near Yemen, whether in the Red Sea or the Indian Ocean, are important for the US due to their connection to the Gulf and East Asian markets, whether in terms of imports or exports. Any Yemeni decision means putting all ships and companies heading to American ports or associated with America in the targeting circle, which Washington has previously failed to protect during months of confrontation.