India, Sept. 12 -- Yemen's Houthi forces have reportedly captured Mayun island inside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, days after taking the nearby port of Mokha. The development places the Iran-backed group beside a shipping chokepoint connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea. It does not mean the Houthis have closed the strait.

For India, the immediate risk is also not the loss of every crude-oil route. The concern is a second regional chokepoint creating higher costs and fewer alternatives while the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted.

What has happened in Yemen?

Associated Press reports carried on the PTI wire said Houthi forces captured Mayun, also called Perim, on September 11. The island divides Bab el-Mandeb into tw...