Red Sea Oil Flows Surge As Trump’s ‘Strongman’ Image Signals De-escalation In Maritime Chokepoint Crisis
18th December 2024
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have sparked turmoil across the Southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden for over a year, targeting Western-linked container ships, tankers, and military vessels. The resulting supply chain snarls have had major implications on global trade, causing a surge in container rate prices and shipping diversions around the Cape of Good Hope. However, early indications suggest that President-elect Trump’s strongman image could help de-escalate tensions and alleviate bottlenecks across this critical maritime chokepoint.
The incoming Trump administration urgently needs a fresh strategy to de-escalate tensions in the critical Bab-el-Mandeb maritime chokepoint that caught the Biden-Harris team entirely off guard. The admin’s Yemen policies were marked by inconsistency, leading to dozens of commercial vessels being struck by kamikaze drones and missiles, with several ships sunk as a result of the chaos.