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The Iran-backed Houthi group continues to fight Yemen’s internationally recognised government and has taken control of the port city of Mocha, an area vital to controlling shipping through the Red Sea, Houthi and Yemeni officials said. If the Houthis use their presence in Mocha to ramp up threats or attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, the takeover gives Iran another potential point of leverage in its war with the US, analysts say. Mocha is about 80 kilometres from the Bab al Mandeb Strait, a waterway that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and through which about 12 percent of the world’s goods are typically shipped. Mocha represents the Houthis’ biggest territorial gain since a truce was signed in 2022 to end a civil war that began more than a decade ago. A return to full-scale civil war would be devastating for the Yemeni people and potentially for world energy supplies.