Hodeida is the main port through which Iran (or anyone else) can supply their local allies/surrogates, who have been trying to take over Yemen.
Hodeida, and the Capital city of Sana’a, are the main strategic targets remaining to effectively defeat Iran’s ambition of controlling Yemen.
When Hodeida falls (as seems likely), it will accelerate what is already a rapid pushback of the Iranian-backed Houthis, who conducted a coup and nearly captured all the main ports and cities in the country in 2014. It will likely be the decisive engagement of the war, as it is the main port for the capital, and the main source of armament and revenue for the Iranian-backed Houthis.
UAE-backed forces have cleared up the coast from the South, securing the naval choke point (Bab el Mandab) at the Southern end of the Red Sea, where 12% of the world’s shipping passes, and more of it’s oil. They are now moving to encircle the port city of Hodeida, and are within artillery range, with a supporting Naval task force offshore.
Since the Houthis took this important port and the Capital City in 2014 (not long after Obama provided money to the Iranian regime), this war has inflicted exceptional deprivation on the civilian population, compounded by disease outbreaks.
The collapse of Iranian surrogates in the wider region has been a significant development, since President Trump withdrew from the Iran deal, and the Treasury Department raided the bank accounts that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps used to fund its surrogates.
Our Regional allies, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE had military offensives prepared to strike (apparently coordinated), in both Syria and Yemen, which have pretty dramatically altered the military situation in both countries. The elections in Iraq during this time, has also resulted in an ongoing effort to block out Iranian-backed groups from the next Iraqi Government.
Thanks for your post. Could I go so far as to say this is a Sunni/shia proxy war( Saudi’s vs Iran) or is there more to this?