Yemen's Houthis Capture Greater and Lesser Hanish Islands in Southern Red Sea, Pressuring Key Shipping Route

Key facts

• Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have seized the strategic islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish in the southern Red Sea, strengthening their control over a key maritime shipping route near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
• The takeover followed the Houthis' seizure of the Red Sea port of Mokha and a strategic island the previous week, as Saudi-backed government forces tried to claw back territory amid the rebels' advances around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
• Repairs to Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline, damaged in an attack on September 10, could take three to five weeks, putting it mostly out of service; the pipeline moves crude from Gulf ports to Red Sea coast ports for export.
• Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas transits in peacetime, in the opening days of the war, prompting Saudi Arabia to use the Bab el-Mandeb Strait for crude oil exports.
• Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Saudi Arabia had demanded that a Strait of Hormuz meeting, to be hosted by Oman, be scrapped for the time being, and said an Iran-Oman agreement on the strait has been finalised.
• China called Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure 'unacceptable' and said it was deeply concerned about further escalations by the rebels.
• Nearly 94,000 people have fled their homes in Yemen since fighting escalated this month, with 48,000 displaced in Taiz and Lahj and over 2,000 fleeing across the sea to Djibouti, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
• The United States Treasury Department issued full sanctions on Russia's VTB Bank, accusing it of helping Iran evade sanctions through correspondent relationships with sanctioned Iranian banks.
• US Energy Secretary Chris Wright criticised Iran's refusal to grant UN inspectors access to war-affected nuclear sites, saying Iran's time to address its negligence toward its obligations was up.
• Austria refused visas to Iran's nuclear chief and other delegation members for the International Atomic Energy Agency's general conference in Vienna, a decision Iran denounced as part of UN sanctions reinstated last year that include a travel ban on Iranian officials.
• The US-Saudi nuclear accord signed in July includes 'absolutely rigorous' anti-proliferation safeguards and could potentially allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium for its civilian nuclear programme.