Houthis Bring Back Red Sea Threat

Yemen’s Houthi terror group entered the Middle East conflict on Saturday on the side of Iran, firing two missiles at Israel. Their entering the latest war renews this threat at the same time that Iran is targeting civilian ships in the Strait of Hormuz, seriously constricting the global circulatory system that is maritime trade.

• The Houthis’ Shiite militia is an Iranian proxy that rules half of Yemen as an Islamist state. From Oct. 7, 2023, through 2025, they launched more than 100 missile and drone attacks on civilian cargo ships in the Red Sea, effectively blocking shipping there.
• After the Houthis attacked ships bound for Israel in 2023, insurers drastically raised prices or dropped coverage for vessels in the Red Sea, forcing most of the world’s major shipping corporations to route cargo from Asia to Europe around South Africa, adding well over a week to every voyage and an estimated $1 million in additional fuel, crew, charter, insurance and overhead costs. But Moller-Maersk and other shippers to this day still favor the costly detour over using the Red Sea.

The current Iran war has all but closed the Strait of Hormuz, the maritime choke point connecting the Persian Gulf, and 20 percent of all oil consumed on the planet, with the wider world. This has caused drastic spikes in global oil prices.

• Iran’s ability to terrorize maritime choke points is one of its most powerful leverages in its war against the West.

Prophecy’s perspective: Daniel 11:40 is a prophecy dated to “the time of the end,” which speaks of a “king of the south” leading a “push” against a “king of the north” to world war. As we explain in the following Trends article, this refers to a modern-day clash between Iran’s proxy empire and united Europe.

• The root word for push means “to gore,” or a sore provocation. Mr. Flurry has pointed to Iran’s attacks on Europe’s trade routes as a significant part of that push. Iran’s control of Yemen via the Houthis plays into this strategy.

As the Houthis attacked merchant ships in the Red Sea, Mr. Flurry wrote in the May-June 2024 Philadelphia Trumpet:

Germany in particular is upset and angry over the economic loss caused by Iran. All its commercial ships have had to detour around South Africa. For this reason alone, this could become the big push of Daniel 11:40. We don’t know yet, but this certainly looks like it could fit that prophetic description in a spectacular way. We need to watch the situation closely.

Iran still has control over the Houthis. It can still use them to great effect, now in tandem with its own military and Islamist paramilitary closing other choke points like the Strait of Hormuz. Expect Iran to continue leveraging its ability to terrorize global shipping—and for Europe to ultimately strike back with overwhelming force.