Houthis of Yemen have been in the news for attacking ships in the Red Sea.
A little history and geography is helpful.
The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers run across Iraq and empty into the Persian Gulf, where also oil pipelines end.
Oil is the number one commodity traded globally.
Oil from Iraq, Kuwait and Iran is put on tankers and shipped south past Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and through the Strait of Hormuz, into the Gulf of Oman in the Indian Ocean.
Turning west, the oil tankers sail around the south side of the Arabian Peninsula along the coast of Oman into the Gulf of Aden, then along the coast of southern Yemen, an area controlled by anti-Houthi forces.
Then tankers turn the corner of the Horn of Africa, past Somalia and near Djibouti, passing through the dangerous, narrow 14-mile-wide Bab-el-Mandeb Strait continuing north into the Red Sea.
This is where the ships sail with the African coast on the west, passing Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt, but on the east ...
