RIYADH, July 27 (Reuters) – Yemen’s Houthi Movement aims to replicate Iran’s Hormuz Strait strategy in the Red Sea by disrupting shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb and has been emboldened by an insufficient international response, Yemen’s top diplomat said on Monday. “The Houthis want to copy the Iranian model and this will shut down two main straits, the gateways into the Gulf and Red Sea,” Yemeni Foreign Minister-designate Afrah Al-Zouba said, speaking to a small group of journalists at the Yemeni embassy in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. The Red Sea has become a new front in the Iran war, with the Houthis taking an escalatory approach against Saudi Arabia by firing missiles and drones at the kingdom and declaring a blockade on Saudi shipping. Saudi Arabia has responded with airstrikes on what it said were Houthi military facilities and said it would protect commercial shipping, accusing the Houthis of serving foreign agendas. (Reporting by Timour Azhari in Riyadh; Writing by Yasmine Ghania and Timour Azhari; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Stephen Coates)(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026.