Progress with Iran can only be achieved ‘by force’, experts warn
President Trump hinted at an imminent peace deal with Iran, suggesting that the US would lift the blockade if the Supreme Leader approved it. Rebecca Henriques, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, expressed skepticism, citing Iran’s continued harassment in the Strait of Hormuz and its nuclear program. She also addresses reports of the US cutting fighter planes in Europe, and questions the timing given rising tensions with Russia.
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The US has hit back at Iran’s terror proxies, the Houthis, now threatening to block yet another Middle East waterway.
Earlier this week, the group announced a blanket ban on Israeli-owned vessels using the Red Sea, declaring them “legitimate targets.”
The waterway through the Red Sea and its narrow Bab-El Mandeb Strait has become the main route for shipping oil from the Middle East to Asia since the Strait of Hormuz ceased to effectively serve as the main route of navigation for shipping.
Iran’s Africa activities pose ‘significant threat to US national security’
Houthi militants wave British and American flags at a rally in support of Palestinians amid Houthi attacks on shipping near Sanaa, Yemen, on February 4, 2024. (Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)
“We declare a complete and total embargo on Israeli maritime navigation in the Red Sea, and we consider all enemy activities as legitimate targets,” Houthi spokesman Yahya Sari posted on Monday.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a State Department spokesperson hit back, saying: “The escalating actions by Iran and their Houthi proxies are unacceptable. These dangerous actions only serve to further escalate tensions and disrupt global supply chains. We will continue to work with our allies to ensure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.”
Edmund Fitton-Brown, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital, “The Houthis have really appeared up to the challenge, at least verbally. With much of the ‘axis of resistance’ rhetoric currently going on, the intention appears to be to take advantage of US political nervousness and market volatility and drive a wedge between Americans and Israelis.”
An aerial view of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a sea route connecting the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal. (Gallo Images/Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data 2021)
Fitton-Brown, Britain’s former ambassador to Yemen, said, “Provided the allies continue to talk past each other, the Israelis respond proportionately, as they have, and the Iranians continue to provoke President Trump with actions such as downing the helicopter, these strategies are unlikely to achieve significant success.”
“It would be interesting if the Houthis move forward in full force and resume their campaign against Red Sea shipping,” Fitton-Brown said. “This would cause international anger and could result in Israeli and US attacks on Sanaa and Hodeida. If this happens a general escalation is likely, although there will be a clear military advantage to the allies.”
US attacks on Yemen continue after Houthi missile attack on Israeli airport; Terrorist group vows ‘air blockade’
A large column of fire erupts in the Yemeni rebel-held port city of Hodeida following reported attacks on July 20, 2024. According to Houthi-run media and an AFP correspondent, the strikes targeted a fuel depot in the port.
Landlocked Ethiopia acts as regional anti-terrorism buffer
Such actions come as reports emerge that Ethiopia, the Red Sea region’s most populous country, is stepping up as a key US ally against Islamic terrorism.
Despite being landlocked, Ethiopia has a population of approximately 130 million, making it the largest country in the Horn of Africa. Located near parts of the Red Sea corridor, the country is about 60% Christian, according to a recent report from the Association of Religion Data Archives.
World Data Locator Map, Ethiopia. (Encyclopædia Britannica/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
And despite being landlocked on all sides, Ethiopia researcher Blaine M. Diriba told Fox News Digital that the country serves as a strategic barrier, or “key state,” on the Islamic expansionist “highway” that runs from Iran to Sudan.
“Ethiopia, long a leading U.S. security partner, now sits at the center of an expanding pressure zone where maritime disruptions, insurgent violence, terrorist threats, and proxy competition intersect,” Diriba, executive director of Horn Review, an Addis Ababa-based research and publishing think tank, told Fox News Digital.
Diriba added. “Iran’s Bab al-Mandeb threat has turned the Horn of Africa into a militarized borderline, placing Ethiopia at the center of a choke point crisis. With Iranian influence spreading through conflict ecosystems in Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia, the region is beginning to resemble a continuous arc of instability stretching from the Arabian Peninsula to East Africa.”
“Ethiopia is at the center of one of the world’s most vulnerable security corridors,” Diriba added. “And in strategic terms, its relevance to the United States is enhanced, not diminished, by that reality: From the Red Sea disruption driven by the Houthis to the threat of al-Shabaab’s persistent insurgency in Somalia, Ethiopia serves as a vast inland security buffer whose stability directly determines whether those threats escalate or are contained.”
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Members of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces parade during the 116th celebration of the Ethiopian Defense Forces Day in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on October 26, 2023. (AFP/Getty Images)
But apart from being pro-US, Ethiopia also has relations with Iran.
Fitton-Brown believes that to some extent Ethiopia can be accused of playing both sides, as he said Tehran has “helped Ethiopia in its internal conflicts by providing drone support and military assistance to the Ethiopian government during the recent Tigray war.”
He added, “A new memorandum of understanding has been built on that basis, in which Iran increases influence in Ethiopia, while Ethiopia receives military, police and intelligence assistance to counter its domestic ethnic insurgencies.”
However, Diriba said, “Ethiopia’s engagement with Iran is neither affinity nor alignment, it is strategic awareness: keeping channels open to engage where necessary, cooperating selectively, and strategically managing its relationship with a complex regional actor, while firmly establishing its core partnerships with its emerging and long-standing partners – the United States being at the top of that list.”
A drone view shows ships anchored in the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, May 25, 2026. (Stringer TPX images of the day via Reuters)
“Ethiopia has adopted a flexible multi-alignment strategy,” Diriba said, “prioritizing its strong security partnership with Washington, while keeping channels open with Tehran, to preserve diplomatic space in the increasingly fragmented Horn of Africa-Red Sea order.”
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Fitton-Brown said relations between the US and Ethiopia are “good, especially in the counter-terrorism area. Both countries use this to their advantage without going so far as to recognize Somaliland as an independent state.”
Fox News Digital contacted both the War Department and the Ethiopian government for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
