Along the ancient corridors where East meets West through narrow straits and vital pipelines, a slow-moving transformation is reshaping who holds power over the world's energy lifelines. Houthi forces in Yemen, long cultivated as a strategic instrument of Iranian ambition, have secured territorial advances that now extend Tehran's reach over a second critical waterway — a development one Yemeni official described with quiet gravity as the moment Iran began to win. The consequences are neither distant nor abstract: global shipping lanes, oil prices, and the regional balance of power are all bei