Sanaa Announces End of Hostilities Along Country's West Coast; Bab al-Mandab Comes Under Full Ansarullah Control

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) – Yemen: According to the statement by Yemen's Supreme Political Council, the situation in the West Coast regions has fully stabilized, and a general amnesty decree is being implemented in the liberated areas. This announcement follows a rapid, multi-axis operation in which Yemeni armed forces seized control of the strategic port of Al-Mukha and vast stretches of the Red Sea coast in Taiz Governorate.

 

Media sources reported that Yemeni forces reached the Al-Mukha coast from the north and advanced eastward as far as the port's airport. Following this advance, Saudi-aligned forces suffered a collapse across several fronts and fled toward Aden and Lahj.

 

Control over Al-Mukha is of vital strategic importance; located approximately 70 kilometers north of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the port enables forces stationed there to monitor and oversee the security of international shipping lanes connecting the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Suez Canal. After securing Al-Mukha, Yemeni forces also liberated islands overlooking the port—including Zuqar, and the Lesser and Greater Hanish islands—and targeted Saudi positions in the Dhubab area with missile and drone strikes. In response to this advance, Abdul-Wahid Abu Ras, Yemen’s Deputy Foreign Minister, dismissed claims regarding the insecurity of shipping lanes, emphasizing that international navigation and shipping in Yemeni waters remain completely secure and pose no threat to passing vessels. He clarified that recent clashes along the western coastal strip have been fully contained and have no bearing on the security of maritime routes.

 

Meanwhile, Abdul-Qader Al-Mortada, head of Yemen’s National Committee for Prisoners' Affairs, announced that the country's armed forces had successfully liberated all prisoners held in facilities controlled by Saudi-aligned forces on the West Coast front. Reports indicate that residents of the port city of Al-Mukha gave a warm welcome to the Yemeni forces following the liberation of this strategic city.

 

Conversely, Rashad Al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council of the Saudi-backed government, issued a call for urgent intervention by Arab nations and the international community to—as he put it—"protect the western coasts." During a meeting with the Egyptian ambassador in Riyadh, Al-Alimi described the protection of Yemen's coasts as a "shared Yemeni, Egyptian, Arab, and international interest," asserting that any attempt to alter the military status quo near the Bab al-Mandab Strait could not be viewed merely as an internal Yemeni matter. These remarks come as the forces under his command on the coastal fronts have disintegrated and completely lost control on the ground.

 

Mohammed Abdulsalam, head of Yemen’s national negotiating delegation, also responded to these developments by emphasizing that Yemen harbors no territorial ambitions regarding neighboring countries or other parts of the world; he stated that current military operations would continue only until the Saudi aggression ceases completely and the oppressive blockade is lifted. He once again emphasized the complete security of shipping lanes and international trade in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

 

Meanwhile, continuing their attacks on Yemeni territory, Saudi fighter jets carried out approximately 40 airstrikes over the past 12 hours against the provinces of Taiz, Al-Hudaydah, Al-Jawf, and Ma'rib in a bid to halt the advance of Yemeni forces. A spokesperson for the Yemeni armed forces also reported that Saudi jets—including F-15SA and Typhoon models—conducted 54 airstrikes across six Yemeni provinces. Nevertheless, these attacks failed to halt the advance of Yemeni forces along the western coastal strip.