Strait talk: Yemen, mercenaries and the Iran war
In the Guns for Hire podcast, Alia Brahimi and Ibrahim Jalal discuss a major military escalation along the Red Sea coast and Houthi tactics. They examine Iran's attempt to create a two-strait crisis before the US midterm elections, and mercenary recruitment networks linked to Russia and Iran that may source Yemeni fighters for Russia in Ukraine in exchange for intelligence sharing. The episode also covers Houthi co-optation of humanitarian aid and links to Iraqi PMF militias trained by Yemenis to bring down drones.
Why it matters: This matters for geoeconomics because the Houthi's recruitment of Yemeni fighters for Russia in exchange for intelligence sharing ties regional conflict to global labor and security markets.