Description:
Vijay Prashad, speaking from Beijing, says Yemen’s Ansar Allah now covers the Bab al-Mandab (Arabic for “Gate of Tears”) while the Strait of Hormuz remains restricted — leaving Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arab states, he says, with no easy way out.
Status check: control of Mocha is contested. The Houthis seized the port city in September; Yemen’s government said on 5 October that it had retaken it, which Al Jazeera could not verify, and a Houthi spokesman denied it on 6 October. Prashad calls it “still contested”. Mayyun (Perim) Island is Prashad’s account; we could not confirm a change of control.
Host Zulfiqar Ali speaks with Prashad about what Beijing is seeing: the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab, the strikes on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, Iran–Saudi contacts that Beijing’s dialogue made possible, why he says Ansar Allah is “not a proxy of Iran”, and Xi Jinping’s proposed table for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
What you’ll learn: why Prashad says the Gulf’s two sea exits are both in other hands · what he says Ansar Allah gained at Mocha · why he argues Iran “does not speak for the Yemenis” · what he says the Iran–Saudi channel achieved · why Iran, he says, wants the Mecca pact left alone · why he asks whether Yemen could “collect” at the Bab al-Mandab as Iran does at Hormuz · what he expects from a Xi-hosted Trump–Putin meeting.