In short
The episode explains how three chokepoints—Suez Canal, Strait of Hormuz, and Bab al-Mandeb—have repeatedly reshaped global power by enabling leverage, disruption, and hostage-taking.
Guests (backgrounds)
- Alex von Tunzelman, historian; author of Blood and Sand: Suez, Hungary and Eisenhower’s Campaign for Peace.
- Harold Lee Wise, author of Inside the Danger Zone: the U.S. military in the Persian Gulf, 1987 to 1988.
- Fadia and Muslimi, Yemen and Gulf researcher at Chatham House (London); originally from Yemen.
Key claims
- Nasser’s 1956 Suez nationalization triggered a planned Anglo-French-Israeli operation (Operation Musketeer) that nearly escalated to World War III; U.S. pressure helped force it to fail.
- In 1988, Iran used mines in Hormuz to disrupt oil flows; the U.S. responded with Operation Praying Mantis, ending the “Tanker War.”
- In 2023–2026, Houthis used Bab al-Mandeb to target shipping, creating “drone mine diplomacy” and hostage leverage.
Notable examples
- Nasser’s decree and Egyptian occupation of Suez Canal offices (July 26, 1956).
- Britain’s planned bombing mishap risking U.S. civilians; U.S. sanctions and Soviet threats.
- USS Samuel B. Roberts mine strike (April 14, 1988) and Operation Praying Mantis platform attacks.
- USS Vincennes downing of an Iranian Airbus (July 1988).
- Houthi hijacking of the Galaxy Leader (Nov 19, 2023) and 430-day hostage; later renewed Bab al-Mandeb blockade threats.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VONasser's Nationalization of the Suez Canal
0:24 to 4:26
Learn about Gamal Abdel Nasser's pivotal speech and the implications of nationalizing the Suez Canal.
“the president of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, stands at a podium in Alexandria, looking out at a crowd of 100 ,000.”
The Suez Crisis Unfolds
5:40 to 21:39
Understand the historical backdrop and the conspiracies leading to the Suez Crisis.
“When people try to talk about what triggers the crisis, they often come to Nasser nationalizing the Suez Canal Company in July 1956.”
Aftermath of the Suez Crisis
21:40 to 23:50
Understand the geopolitical implications of the Suez Crisis and its impact on global power dynamics.
“But actually, he emerged really as unquestionably the preeminent figure in Middle Eastern politics, and was seen as a hero that had defeated two empires.”
Aftermath of the Suez Crisis
24:51 to 25:15
Understand the geopolitical implications of the Suez Crisis and its impact on global power dynamics.
“New Rosetta Stone Sapphire combines their trusted immersion method with the latest innovations in technology to help you learn faster and personalize your lessons.”
Aftermath of the Suez Crisis
25:21 to 25:52
Understand the geopolitical implications of the Suez Crisis and its impact on global power dynamics.
“Support for this podcast and the following message come from strawberry.me.”
Operation Praying Mantis
26:05 to 28:05
Learn about the U.S. response to the minefield crisis and its historical context.
“Roberts has just hit a mine, on fire, holes in its hull, gathering water fast.”
The Tanker War: Iran and Iraq Conflict
28:05 to 36:34
Explore the origins and key events of the Tanker War between Iran and Iraq during the 1980s.
“A war that began just a year after the 1979 Iranian Revolution.”
Operation Praying Mantis
36:34 to 38:51
Learn about Operation Praying Mantis and its impact on U.S. military presence in the Middle East.
“An American plane dropped a single bomb on that ship.”
Bab al-Mandeb: A New Chokepoint
38:51 to 42:01
Discover the strategic significance of Bab al-Mandeb and its implications for global shipping.
“A status quo that was in place until the current war between the U.S., Israel, and Iran began.”
The Houthis: An Overview
42:01 to 43:18
Learn about the Houthis' origins, ideology, and rise to power in Yemen.
“In this third story, we'll see something different.”
Show all 14 chapters
The Red Sea Incident
43:19 to 45:31
Explore the Houthis' dramatic hijacking of the Galaxy Leader and its global implications.
“Houthi fighters seized control of the presidential palace in Sana 'a.”
Economic Impact of Houthi Actions
45:32 to 48:56
Understand how Houthi attacks have influenced global shipping costs and insurance.
“But in another way, I was like, wait, this actually can be a huge global opportunity in which Yemen can be redefined from, oh, a poor, suffering country into an important country.”
Non-State Actors and Global Power
48:57 to 52:35
Discuss the evolving role of non-state actors like the Houthis in shaping international relations.
“And the Houthis were like, OK, we can do it too.”
The Geography of Conflict
52:36 to 53:08
Examine how geography influences modern conflicts and economic leverage.
“Whether it's the Suez or Panama Canal, a strait in the Persian Gulf, or a shipping lane in the Black Sea or the South China Sea.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00This message comes from Angie. Tackling a home project, Angie can connect you with pros who do such a good job you might ask them to be your kid's godfather. Don't do that. Just trust them to get the job done. Find a pro for your projects at Angie.com. That's A-N-G-I dot com.
0:23As evening sets in on July 26, 1956, the president of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, stands at a podium in Alexandria, looking out at a crowd of 100 ,000. He's about to throw a wrench into the plans of the most powerful countries on Earth. At first, the speech seems fairly standard, kind of upbeat. But about halfway into the nearly three-hour speech, Nasser begins to rail against what he calls the imperialists who have mortgaged our future, his voice growing more fiery.
1:03And then he repeatedly says the name Ferdinand de Lesseps, the 19th-century French developer who built the Suez Canal in the 1860s, which dramatically cut down the travel time between Europe and Asia.
1:25The canal was mostly built by Egyptian laborers. It runs through Egyptian territory. But the two biggest shareholders of the company that controlled shipping in the canal? Britain and France. And towards the end of the speech, Nasser reads a presidential decree nationalizing the Suez Canal Company, putting control of shipping there in the hands of Egypt. At that exact moment, miles away, Egyptian military forces mobilize to occupy the canal offices, taking control of all its assets.
2:04The crowd erupts with cheers.
2:12Almost immediately, the British and French owners of the Suez Canal Company start freaking out.
2:22A new Middle East crisis arises as President Nasser of Egypt tells a wildly cheering crowd... The clock begins ticking. Can Egypt and these empires come to some kind of agreement? His announcement touches off a rapid series of reprisals and counter-reprisals. Turns out, Britain had already been working on a secret plan to try to get rid of Nasser. And now the moment has come to put it into action. A conspiracy that will nearly bring on World War III.
2:57The feeling that we're hurtling towards World War III isn't unfamiliar today. And over the last week, the headlines have been dominated by one question. Will the latest U.S.-Iran tentative deal hold? And will the oil keep flowing through the Strait of Hormuz? Which highlights an important reality. For decades now, the real power in the region has often flowed through water. Three narrow waterways shape the Middle East's relationship to the world, carrying up to a quarter of global trade. Together, they form what may be the most powerful triangle on Earth. The Suez Canal, the Strait of Hormuz, and Bab al-Mendeb.
3:40In times of crisis, these waterways become choke points, a single disruption sending shockwaves across continents. Shockwaves that often reverberate long after ceasefires are signed and tensions cool. I'm Randa Abdel Fattah, and on this episode of ThruLine from NPR, We're taking you to three moments on these waterways that helped define the modern Middle East and rewrote the rules of global power.
4:16When we come back, we return to the secret murder conspiracy on the Suez Canal.
4:26My name is Fletcher Desiravine from Silver Spring, Maryland, and you're listening to ThruLine from NPR. This message comes from Ali. Thinking more about gut health lately? Ali offers a range of science-backed supplements designed to support you and your family's daily wellness. From probiotics that help support digestive and immune health to fiber gummies made with kids in mind, OLLI makes it easier to build simple habits into your routine. With options for different needs and lifestyles, finding the right fit can feel more manageable. Explore the full lineup at OLLI.com. This message comes from Rosetta Stone.
5:06Rosetta Stone Sapphire personalizes your language learning. Get unlimited access to all 25 Rosetta Stone languages and Sapphire learning tools. Visit rosettastone.com slash NPR and receive 20 % off. This message comes from NPR sponsor Carvana. Carvana believes selling your car should be refreshingly simple. Enter your license plate or VIN, get a real offer down to the penny, and schedule a pickup on your time. No surprises. Sell your car today at Carvana.com. Pickup fees may apply. Part 1. Suez. When people try to talk about what triggers the crisis, they often come to Nasser nationalizing the Suez Canal Company in July 1956.
5:53But I think that you have to understand the world in which that happened. This is Alex von Tunzelman. I'm a historian and my book is called Blood and Sand, Suez, Hungary and Eisenhower's Campaign for Peace. A few months before Nasser made his earth-shattering announcement to nationalize the Suez Canal Company, the British Prime Minister, Anthony Eden, had actually phoned a colleague in the foreign office and said, I want him murdered. So before we dive into what happened next on the Suez Canal, we need to rewind a little to understand what the world looked like back then and how Nasser ended up at that podium.
6:33— So Britain and France had been the imperial powers in the Middle East. They'd carved it up between themselves under what was called the Sykes-Picot Agreement. — In 1916, the Sykes-Picot Agreement drew new borders around the Arab territories of the crumbling Ottoman Empire, places like Syria, Lebanon, Haddock, and Palestine, and put them under the control of either Britain or France. Around this time, a British intelligence bureau was set up in Egypt to monitor its neighbors. And then, a couple decades later... Of course, you've got World War II shakes up the entire world. After World War II, complex time in the Middle East.
7:11In theory, it was the end of empires, the end of colonial rule, the beginning of a new world order defined by international law and organizations like the United Nations. In 1947, the UN drafted a plan calling for the partition of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states. Israel was established the following year. An Arab state was not created. That created a lot of instability in the Middle East, largely because most of the other Middle Eastern countries were very unhappy with what they saw as a sort of colonial move after World War II. The U.S., not a huge player in the Middle East yet, was a big supporter of this plan and helped push it through.
7:55The day after the State of Israel was declared, you had a joint force of Arab armies invading and that first war that kind of establishes that. Newsreels from the time show Israeli soldiers driving trucks through the streets. Latest pictures from war-torn Palestine provide these impressions of Haganah forces consolidating areas under their control. And Gamal Abdel Nasser was among those who fought in that war. Nasser was from a middle-class family. Very, very bright. Very ambitious. Also very good-looking, not irrelevant. And like a lot of young men in Egypt then, who had bigger dreams for themselves, he joined the military.
8:34And he really started to come onto the radar of people like the CIA in the early 1950s. The CIA had been established after World War II and was just starting to build its relationships worldwide. In March 1952, when the CIA operative Kermit Roosevelt was in Cairo, Nasser was a colonel. Roosevelt had a series of meetings with him and actually established that Nasser was rather a positive figure from the point of view of American interests. This is the same Kermit Roosevelt that staged the coup in Iran in 1953. Oh, yeah. There weren't too many Kermit Roosevelt. These guys were busy. Yeah. You know, there was a lot happening at this time.
9:14A lot of secret plots and backroom deals. You can't disentangle it from the history of oil. This part of the world is just becoming incredibly important. And the struggle to control that is absolutely enormous.
9:36Meanwhile, Nasser helps stage a coup and goes on to become prime minister of Egypt in 1954 and president in 1956. He was politically positioning himself in a very interesting way. You've got to remember, the Cold War has really kicked off by this point. Nasser refused to align fully with either Washington or Moscow. He promoted Arab unity and anti-colonial nationalism, which made him very popular across the region, and threatening to France, which blamed him for encouraging resistance in Algeria. So at this time, Algeria is still part of France. It's held in a colonial situation, which it's very unhappy about.
10:15Lucky for France, there was one guy in the British Foreign Office who absolutely could not stand Nasser. Anthony Eden. Anthony Eden started off as a foreign diplomat and eventually became prime minister. He actually spoke Arabic and Persian. Eden only ever met Nasser once in person. That was in February 1955. According to witnesses, it did not go well. Eden brought his wife with him. Eden's wife was much younger than him. It was his second wife, Clarissa Churchill, Winston Churchill's niece. Long story short, Eden, who was getting up there in age, seemed to be trying to impress his young wife and started reeling off classical Arabic poetry to Nasser, this young, handsome Arab trailblazer.
11:00You can imagine Nasser thinking, What is happening? Why are you saying this? Then Eden tries to lecture him on defense strategies. He and Nasser start arguing politics. And there he is, kind of losing an argument to a much more handsome, much younger man in front of his wife at dinner. You know, do we think this was maybe a factor? I don't know. The strength of that vendetta against Nasser was so extraordinary that we have to say it's hard to imagine there wasn't some kind of personal element. Now, this is definitely speculative territory, but she says it gets at something important about big historical moments.
11:38As a Cold War historian, I often have a little motto, which is never assume rationality. Never assume that somebody's doing something for really good logical reasons. By the spring of 1956, the British Secret Services were looking into ways to assassinate Nasser. Around that time, totally unrelated to that, the U.S. withdrew funding they had promised Nasser to build a massive hydroelectric dam in Egypt. The U.S. and the U.K. were growing impatient with Nasser's foreign policy and decided to withdraw funding. Nasser was furious. And that's when he nationalizes the Suez Canal Company. Soon after, France and Britain start to set in motion a plan to invade Egypt, get rid of Nasser, and retake control of the Suez Canal Company.
12:27And, you know, Eisenhower heard about it. They didn't actually approach him. The American president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, had been a general in World War II. He'd seen the devastation firsthand. Plus, it was an election year, and he was determined to keep the peace. So he wrote a strongly worded letter to Eden telling him to stand down, insisting on diplomacy. He then sent in the U.S. Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, to mediate things. He really drove a massive diplomatic campaign with the U.N. to hash out some sort of user plan for the Suez Canal Company, some kind of joint running of it.
13:08Dulles was actually making a lot of progress. Nasser was playing ball. It was looking like they were going to be able to figure it out. But at the same time that was happening, Britain and France were not happy with it. They were going along with it to, like, you know, show good face for the Americans in this. But they were also planning what they called Operation Musketeer. And they needed Israel's help to carry out Operation Musketeer. The basic plan was, Israel would invade Egypt first. Britain and France would then pose as neutral peacekeepers, send in troops, and use the fighting as a pretext to seize control of the canal.
13:48Israel agrees to go along with this plan. I think we need to remember this is incredibly soon after World War II, incredibly soon after the Holocaust. There's a real sense among Israelis that this is about survival. And there's quite a ruthlessness that goes with that. Alex says they were also interested in expanding beyond the border they shared with Egypt. And they had their eyes on the Sinai Peninsula at this point. I think Israel was far more preoccupied with its own borders, as indeed they are today. At the UN in October, Egypt had agreed to a set of principles for how the canal should be governed.
14:26Still, Britain, France, and Israel secretly agreed to go ahead with Operation Musketeer. And on October 29, 1956... After weeks of stalemate, the Suez crisis burst dramatically into the news again, for Israel has invaded Egypt. Britain and France have declared the canal in danger. initially Britain and France got together in London for what they said was emergency talks of course this had all been planned you can hear the sense of surprise in news footage from the time come out of this meeting in London and say we've got an ultimatum if Egypt or Israel refuses these terms Britain and France will intervene in 12 hours very very short deadline just 12 hours I know that you would wish me as Prime Minister to talk to you tonight on the problem which is in everybody's mind So, you know, people literally are listening to this on the radio and British civil servants are putting their heads in their hands and saying, what the hell is going on?
15:29They don't immediately suspect it's a conspiracy because they can't possibly believe that such a thing has been done One former civil servant wrote in his diary, you know we think A.E. Anthony Eden has gone off his head And one foreign office official was asking another what was going on. And the guy said, don't ask me, and then sort of flicked his thumb at 10 Downing Street and said, ask that fucking madman over there. Meanwhile, Nasser also can't believe this is happening. He kind of said, look, let's not leap to conclusions too much. Let's kind of take our time and really work out what's happening here, because it seems so unlikely.
16:07But Eisenhower. Eisenhower did work out very quickly that he'd been betrayed because he knew that Britain and France were planning something like this. The journalist James Reston, he wrote, the White House crackled with barracks room language, the like of which had not been heard since the days of General Grant. So I think probably some big swears going on in the White House. So they're mad. Yeah, super mad. Operation Musketeer had quickly started causing huge ripples and confusion, even before the 12-hour ultimatum was up. French warships are out there in the Mediterranean working with Israeli ships on joint operations.
16:49So it's incredibly obvious that they're working together, really, to anyone who's paying the slightest attention. The United States was not consulted in any way about any phase of these actions, nor were we informed of them in advance. The next day, Eisenhower gives a speech telling everyone to chill out and respect international order. In the past, the United Nations has proved able to find a way to end bloodshed. We believe it can and that it will do so again. It's a very pressure cooker situation and probably this is the point to mention it. There's the first major uprising against Soviet control in satellite states.
17:29So the Hungarian uprising begins at this exact point, totally separate from what is happening in the Middle East. But the heady breadth of freedom was short as 20 red-armoured divisions sent Hungarians by the thousands fleeing to the Austrian border. The Americans are thinking, what the heck is going on? Why is this happening at the same time? And meanwhile, Moscow starts to think that the CIA must be behind the Hungarian uprising. This is all part of some kind of anti-Soviet move. So basically, everyone is paranoid about these two crises unfolding at the same time. And this is when people start talking about this could turn into World War III.
18:09That's the word they use at the time.
18:16Less than a week into Operation Musketeer, things were spiraling way more than expected. The Hungarian uprising is heating up. And on the ground in Egypt, Britain, France, and Israel were militarily pulling off the operation, but not without some serious mistakes, which only intensified the diplomatic firestorm. To give you an example, Britain intended to bomb Cairo West, which was an airfield in Cairo. So the idea is you take out the air power, right? That's always one of the first sort of acts in the war. So British planes are in the air heading for Cairo West. But at the last minute, a message crackles through, saying 1 ,300 American civilians are being evacuated through Cairo West.
19:01So if the British bomb it, they're probably going to kill 1 ,300 American civilians. Eden frantically sends a message to the bombers and says, change the target, change the target, bomb something else. Crazy. Like, it's crazy that you would just bomb another place haphazardly. Right, just something else. Anyway, it goes even longer than that, though. The planes only had 10 minutes to change those plans. They hadn't been fully briefed, and they mistook the civilian airport in Cairo for Almaza, the military aerodrome, which is, of course, a major act of war. That shows you kind of the levels of chaos that were going on here and the sort of disorganization.
19:41At this point, the U.S. and the Soviet Union both jump into action. These sworn enemies, engaged in an existential fight over control of the world, end up on the same side, trying to force a ceasefire at the UN. Of course, the problem for the UN Security Council is that Britain and France are on it. So there is a resolution brought against them, but because they're both permanent members of the Security Council, they use their veto and it can't be passed. And then the U.S. decides it's going to hit Britain where it really hurts. Its pocketbook. Eisenhower realizes he has a very, very big lever here, which is oil.
20:22Eisenhower knew that if he forced Britain to pay for oil with dollars, they would soon hit a wall. Inflation would soar. And they'd start to crumble economically. He actually says in a private meeting that he's inclined to let them boil in their own oil. It was a form of sanctions. One Labour MP of the time said the only successful use of sanctions in history was the Americans over Suez. And the Soviet Union applied its own pressure. The Soviet leadership sort of elliptically threatened a nuclear attack on London and Paris. Now, it didn't go so far as to say we're going to nuke London and Paris, but said if rocket weapons were used against Britain and France, you would no doubt call this a barbarous act.
21:06But how is this different from the inhuman attack carried out by the armed forces of Britain and France on an almost unarmed Egypt? Was it a real or empty threat? Anthony Eden didn't want to wait to find out. Under threat of rocket attacks, but also with Britain's economy imploding, he actually pulls out. And just like that, a little over a week after Operation Musketeer begins, it ends in failure. Nasser still in power, and Egypt still in control of the Suez Canal Company. Nasser himself was actually very depressed after the Suez crisis because his army had lost all the battles. But actually, he emerged really as unquestionably the preeminent figure in Middle Eastern politics, and was seen as a hero that had defeated two empires.
21:57The defeat was especially felt by the British. The British Empire was pretty much over already by this point. But I think what it did was kind of end that era psychologically in a huge way. And if you look at how the world is talked about in papers at the time, initially, when people use this word superpower, they discuss three superpowers, and it's the Soviet Union, the United States and the British Empire. After Suez, nobody talks about there being three superpowers anymore. It becomes a bilateral world, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and that's it. Eden left office pretty soon after the Suez crisis.
22:33And apparently Nasser, when he saw Eden, you know, fall from power, lose his health, he said it was the curse of the pharaohs. Where does Israel come out in all of this? Some of Israel are hoping that they will hang on to Sinai and the Gaza Strip to territories that they have occupied during this war. But actually Ben-Gurion says quite quickly to Eisenhower, we're not intending to occupy it long term, we'll give it back. Which will, of course, culminate in 1967, right? And the war that will lead to the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, the Sinai. Yes, you can see the roots of that at this point.
23:11Many later saw Suez as a long-term strategic win for Israel because it strengthened Israel's relationship with France, which helped lay the foundation for Israel's nuclear program. For the U.S., Suez marked the beginning of a new era. As British influence receded, the U.S. stepped into a leading role in the Middle East, positioning itself as a central outside power. If there's one lesson from this moment, it's that waterways like the Suez Canal can give an underdog like Egypt a massive amount of leverage on the global stage and possibly even upend the power structures of empires. The rules that govern the water are more fluid than those on land.
23:55And the people who start a crisis don't always get to decide how it ends.
Read the full transcript
24:04Coming up, we travel back to the very first time the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire on the Strait of Hormuz.
24:15This is Jack from Springfield, Illinois, and you're listening to ThruLine from NPR. This message comes from Ali. Thinking more about gut health lately? Ali offers a range of science-backed supplements designed to support you and your family's daily wellness. From probiotics that help support digestive and immune health to fiber gummies made with kids in mind, Ali makes it easier to build simple habits into your routine. With options for different needs and lifestyles, finding the right fit can feel more manageable. Explore the full lineup at O-L-L-Y dot com. This message comes from Rosetta Stone.
24:53New Rosetta Stone Sapphire combines their trusted immersion method with the latest innovations in technology to help you learn faster and personalize your lessons. They have helped millions learn languages for over 30 years. Take your language skills to the next level with Rosetta Stone Sapphire. Get unlimited access to all 25 Rosetta Stone languages, plus all the new Sapphire learning tools. Visit rosettastone.com slash NPR and receive 20 % off today. Support for this podcast and the following message come from strawberry.me. Be honest. Are you happy with your job? Are you stuck in a job you've outgrown or never wanted in the first place?
25:32Are your reasons for staying really just excuses for not leaving? Let a career coach from strawberry.me help you get unstuck. Discover the benefits of having a dedicated career coach in your corner and get 50 % off your first coaching session at strawberry.me slash NPR. Part 2. Operation Praying Mantis. The flooding is being pumped out in AMR 3. We found a hole in AMR 2. The engineers have shorted up. It's April 14th, 1988. somewhere in the Persian Gulf. And the USS Samuel B. Roberts has just hit a mine, on fire, holes in its hull, gathering water fast. The ship was buckling and threatening to come in, too.
26:20However, we've got to fight this bomb ourselves. We don't know what the size of the minefield is. There's no way for another ship to come to their rescue inside the minefield without risking getting hit themselves. So its 200 crew members are stranded. They have to find a way out on their own, or else sink. It's getting dark. We need to maintain visibility. By the next morning, they managed to hold the ship together long enough to get out of the minefield and back to safe waters. Miraculously, no one died. Hello. Mr. President, good morning. President Ronald Reagan calls the captain of the USS Roberts to congratulate him.
27:03I just wanted to call and congratulate you and your men for such a great job in getting your ship safely into port after being struck by that mine.
27:18Almost as soon as the USS Roberts was in the clear, American officials in the Middle East got in touch with the Pentagon and Reagan to respond to this attack with a plan that would put the U.S. and Iran on a collision course in the Strait of Hormuz. a narrow, 100-mile-long waterway that borders Iran to the north and Oman and the UAE to the south. It's the second stop on our triangle, and the one you've likely been hearing about a lot lately. But first, how and why did Iran take control of this strip of water and convert it into a minefield? To understand that, we've got to turn back the clock.
27:58The most dangerous place for merchant shipping today is the Gulf, surrounded by the Gulf War. By 1988, Iran and Iraq had been at war on land for nearly a decade. A war that began just a year after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Hundreds of thousands of people died, including tens of thousands of child soldiers. And when the war stalled on land... An oil tanker runs the gauntlet of air attacks in the Gulf War. It spilled over into the water, with both countries attacking each other's oil tankers. Iran was sort of by itself. The smaller Gulf countries were supporting Iraq. Iraq was at the time led by, as we know, Saddam Hussein.
28:43And ironically, the United States was supporting him. And Iran wanted to disrupt the flow of oil and gas, ultimately money, to the allies of its enemy. And so they would attack the tankers going to those countries. This is Harold Lee Wise. He wrote a book called Inside the Danger Zone, the U.S. military in the Persian Gulf, 1987 to 1988. It features many firsthand accounts from people involved in what became known as the Tanker War. It's one of the busiest waterways in the world. The numbers vary, but they usually hover around 20 % of the world's oil and natural gas, the world's energy supply.
29:30So Iran armed small boats on the water and placed mines all over the strait. The Kuwaitis, they approached the United States with a request to escort their tankers. They had to be re-flagged with American flags in order to legally be protected by the U.S. Navy. This is what became known as Operation Earnest Will. For the most part, the escorts are going along just fine. And in April of 88, the San Luis Roberts was just not on an escort mission. It was just on a normal patrol. It hit a mine. In the days after the USS Roberts hit that mine, American military officials in the Gulf and politicians back in Washington debated exactly how to retaliate for this attack.
30:18The folks in the Gulf, the military leadership there, wanted to go after the silkworm sites on land. Silkworm missiles was the nickname given to a new kind of anti-ship cruise missile developed by China around this time and sold to Iran. It was relatively cheap and could be launched from platforms on the shoreline of the strait. Iran would eventually reverse-engineer the Silkworm missile to create an arsenal of anti-ship missiles. Military people on the ground believed Iran was acting as pirates. Let's take the gloves off and put a stop to some of these things. Washington thought the same, but they wanted to be just proportionate, and maybe just a hair over, but not too much over.
31:01They reached the compromise and sent the plan over to Reagan, who gave it the green light. They must know that we will protect our ships, and if they threaten us, they'll pay a price. The plan was named Operation Praying Mantis, and it was set to take place on April 18, 1988.
31:25Evacuate the platform immediately. I repeat, evacuate immediately. The orders came down to start it at 8 o 'clock. American warships were deployed to attack two Iranian gas oil platforms. They approached the first platform. They warned them first. They radioed to the platform. Evacuate the platform immediately. The clock struck eight. They waited a few more minutes. And then... They started blasting. On one of the platforms... The Americans accidentally hit a gas tank. the platform blew up.
32:09At that point, Iran decided to strike back. They send out a missile boat called the Joshan. So they started attacking an American boat called the Willy Tide, which is an oil rig support boat. Well, the order came down to destroy that boat. This is a warning. They warned them one or four times by radio, stop. Stop and abandon ship. I intend to thank you. Over. A couple minutes later, they spotted a cloud of rocket exhaust coming from the Joshan. The U.S. returned fire. So for just a second, the missiles were both in the air. And this is the first surface-to-surface missile attack in world history.
32:57Quick side note, the missile fired by the Joshan was ironically an American-made harpoon missile that the U.S. sold to Iran during the Shah era, before the 1979 revolution brought the Ayatollah to power, when there was a lot of business happening between the two countries. The Shah had been installed in 1953 after a U.S.-backed coup orchestrated by Kermit Roosevelt, that CIA agent we heard about earlier in the episode. Okay, back to the battle. The harpoon flew by, and it landed in the water, 100 feet away from the ship. As for the missile the Americans fired, it hit the Joshan. Eventually, the Americans managed to sink the Joshan.
33:45Iran started launching planes, and one of the U.S. ships started shooting missiles at them. Meanwhile, American planes were circling above the water. And all this time, the USS Enterprise carrier group was outside of the Strait of Hormuz. A carrier group is a naval task force built around an aircraft carrier that can execute a really serious attack on water. The Enterprise had received an earlier set of orders that told them to definitely destroy one of the big ships. The latest orders said it was optional, but they thought it was a mission priority. These kind of things happen. These kinds of things as in a miscommunication that can lead to a ship getting blown up?
34:31Yes.
34:36In any case, Iranian commanders sent one of the two large ships out, and it was the Sahand. Now, Iran would play some tricks with these ships. They would repaint their numbers and swap them around. Suppose you see a ship coming out and it has this one number on it. The next day you see it in a different number, you think, oh, that's two ships. Iran has more ships than we thought. The Iranians send out what the Americans think is the Sabalan. It had the number that the Sabalan had previously. Whose captain reportedly had a habit of sending oil tankers a message before attacking them. Have a nice day.
35:11And they had kind of a grudge against that guy. An American attack jet flies in for a closer look. And the Saiyan started shooting at him. At the same time, remember that carrier group? Well, their jets also start attacking the Sahand, just as another U.S. warship radios them. It says, back off, I'm attacking the ship. And they said, you back off, we're attacking the ship. The Sahand gets hit from all sides, and they sink it. Iran reported 45 dead and 87 injured. And it's interesting that in the press release, the Pentagon put out that this was a coordinated attack. See the irony? It was accidentally coordinated.
35:51There's something interesting about that, right? Facts on the ground create a new narrative. Exactly. I mean, you're in media, you know, you can't go by some of these information that you get. Later on, they told the pilot you would either get court-martialed or get a medal for what you did. Because it was iffy, you know, justification for attacking the ship. Whether it was like a war crime versus an act of heroism. Yeah, but they ended up getting the medal. At this point, the American military was sure Iran would cut its losses and back down. But instead... Iran sent out their other big ship.
36:34The American planners, they said, this is crazy. Why are they sending it out? An American plane dropped a single bomb on that ship. The bomb went down the stack ship and exploited in their engine room. And the ship just drifted to a stop and started leaking oil all over the Gulf. And for a few minutes after, there was a question about whether they should continue the assault on the Iranian ship and try to sink it. Harold says people who were there told him the pilots radioed the Pentagon. And Admiral Crowe, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, No, call it off. That's enough for today.
37:16In less than 24 hours, Operation Praying Mantis was over. For the U.S., it was the largest air-sea battle since World War II. They had taken out two Iranian oil platforms, two of Iran's biggest warships, and several smaller boats. And although escorts of oil tankers would continue for another year, This operation effectively ended the tanker war, with one notable exception. The USS Vincennes shot two missiles and an Iranian Airbus, mistaking it for an Iranian jet fighter. It was in early July of 88 that the U.S. ship, the USS Vincennes, mistakenly identified an Iranian passenger plane as an attacking plane.
38:04All 290 people on board died in the crash. The Reagan administration this week offered to pay compensation to the families of the downed airliner. The move was unpopular in the U.S., but it's likely to weaken international support for Iran's charge that the missile attack was intentional. Despite that fatal error, the success of Operation Praying Mantis loomed large, and the U.S. was seen as the de facto guardian of the Strait of Hormuz. It really increased the standing of the U.S. military worldwide. It showed the smaller Gulf countries that the U.S. was a reliable ally, which was questionable before this operation started.
38:44This reassured the world that the U.S. would keep this oil flowing. A status quo that was in place until the current war between the U.S., Israel, and Iran began. And when there's instability in there today, we see in our own pocketbooks how it's affecting us. Coming up, we travel to the newest frontier in the water wars, which may deepen that hole in our pocketbooks even more.
39:17You're listening to 3Line from NPR. This is Taylor from Aromas, California. And I love this show. I find it to be eye-opening, thought-provoking. Thank you all so much. This message comes from Ali. Thinking more about gut health lately? Ali offers a range of science-backed supplements designed to support you and your family's daily wellness. From probiotics that help support digestive and immune health to fiber gummies made with kids in mind, Ali makes it easier to build simple habits into your routine. With options for different needs and lifestyles, finding the right fit can feel more manageable.
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40:46On June 8, 2026, a spokesperson for Yemen's Houthis released this video announcing a missile attack on Israel. He also declared a ban on Israeli shipping in the Red Sea, raising fears that there will be major disruptions to shipping traffic in Bab al-Mendeb, which loosely translates to the gate of grief. It can be the word of grief, because al-mandab is a double linguistic word in Arabic. It can be the way out or the way to get stuck in. It's the neck of many things. Like the choke point. Yes, yes, exactly. This is Fadia and Muslimi. I am a Yemen and golf researcher at Chatham House in London.
41:30I am originally from Yemen. The two waterways we've visited so far, the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz, might be more familiar to you. But Fatia has spent a lot of time thinking about this third point of the triangle, Bab-en-Mendab, the narrow passage between Yemen and the Horn of Africa that links the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. Each story reveals a different kind of power hidden on these waterways. At Suez, we saw how a waterway could shift the balance of power between nations. In Hormuz, we saw how it could disrupt the flow of oil and goods around the world. In this third story, we'll see something different.
42:08How a narrow stretch of water can be used by non-state actors to make themselves impossible for the world to ignore. Babin Mandab only really came on the radar of many Americans in the last few years and has become almost synonymous with the Houthis. The militia armed the group supported by Iran. They are originally Yemeni. I personally think the Houthis are a combination of Taliban, Fark in Colombia, and North Korea. They're Shia Taliban because their extreme explanation of Islam is radical and their worldview of human rights, of equality, of women, of the West, of the other, is extremely criminalizing.
42:53They are like FARC of Colombia because they depend highly on illicit business revenues, drugs. And they are North Korea because they believe in isolating themselves and everyone from the world. Their biggest dream is to basically keep millions of Yemenis under their control. That has nothing to do with the world. The Houthis came to power in Yemen a decade ago with a headline-making move. Houthi fighters seized control of the presidential palace in Sana 'a. They also took control of state media. Situation on the ground remains unstable. This spiraled into a brutal civil war that quickly ballooned into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
43:40The decade later, it's still ongoing. A disturbing mixture of Libya, Syria, Iraq, and somehow Lebanon together, all put into one package called Yemen. In the U.S., the war in Yemen received very little coverage, despite becoming one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. It was not a domestic issue. It was not an election issue. But then... They burst into the wheelhouse and ordered the crew to lie down. On November 19th, 2023, a little over a month after the October 7th attacks and the beginning of the bombardment of Gaza... The Houthis showed up in the Red Sea. But a dozen men wearing body armor and carrying assault weapons jump out of a helicopter and run along the deck of the Galaxy Leader.
44:30A cargo ship called the Galaxy Leader was traveling near Babid Mendeb when armed Houthi hijackers suddenly descended on the ship. According to the Lloyd's List, a shipping journal, the Galaxy Leader is Israeli-owned, Bahama-flagged, and operated by a Japanese company. A Houthi spokesperson didn't comment specifically on the seizure, but said all ships owned or operated by Israel could be targeted. From a media point of view, it was the perfect entrance for them. A Hollywood style. The Houthis provided the video and blurred faces. Which they released on social media the next day. That was how the Houthis decided to announce themselves to the world.
45:10Hundreds of millions of young men and women around the world feeling senseless, looking for any compass. frustrated partially. A lot of people say nothing will be the same in Palestine and Israel after that. They're disrupting one of the world's busiest shipping lanes in the Red Sea, where thousands of massive cargo ships travel through every year. Obviously, my immediate reaction was like, holy crap. But in another way, I was like, wait, this actually can be a huge global opportunity in which Yemen can be redefined from, oh, a poor, suffering country into an important country. You know, the Red Sea attacks in 2023 was the very first time since 13 years the world has paid for Yemen war.
46:00Fadiya says in reality, the Houthis weren't even all that comfortable on the water. They're a mountain group. They hate the water, they're afraid of the water, they're cave people. But suddenly, like, as the whole world, the global, was coming, they saw, oh, water. That can be something, you know? The mountain and the sea in Yemen, they hug each other. Which meant the Houthis could launch attacks on ships in Bab al-Mendeb from the mountains without ever stepping foot in the water. And they got weapons, drones, and maritime training from Iran. Now, three people have been killed and at least two injured in the latest attack by Houthi rebels on a merchant ship.
46:37The attacks already leading to a 5 % increase in the cost of shipping a container from Asia to the east coast of the U.S. since October 7th. It started to create an immediate insurance panic. And insurance beyond anything. It's a feeling. So that feeling was broken. You're no more safe in Babel Mandap. You're no more safe in this part of the world. But it was a panic that you could see in numbers. You can see in Wall Street. It was something in which businessmen started to basically worry about. And is it too simple to say that part of what garners the attention is as soon as a state or a non-state actor begins to threaten money, the bottom line, that's when, you know, the global community tends to mobilize most aggressively?
47:30Absolutely. You had the EU, one of the most inefficient bureaucracies in the world. and the most consensus and time-consuming, they started to make a military operation called the Aspides operation in the Red Sea. The mission, named Aspides, the Greek word for protector, involves four countries, Greece, France, Italy, and Germany. Ended up until today happening in the Red Sea and Babel Mandel.
47:57Would you call this a form of political piracy? Yes, yes. Vadia also has another name for it, drone mine diplomacy. They change the rule not just of business, but of war. If they shoot a drone that takes a few thousand dollars, then if U.S. Central Com interrupts that drone with a$70 ,000 rocket, the Houthis win. It's a choice in which you can only bleed and bleed, and the other side only win or win. If they hit you, they win. If they don't hit you, they also win. Because they created that fear. What will happen if the Houthis? You will sanction them. They don't care. Will you ban them from travel?
48:44They don't spend August in Las Vegas. Don't have bank accounts in Belgium or in New York. You can freeze. It also came in a moment where the international law and order is already collapsing by states. It was a fracturing in Palestine. It was fracturing in Ukraine. It was fracturing in Syria. It was fracturing everywhere else. And the Houthis were like, OK, we can do it too. And Fadia says there isn't such a clear difference between what non-state actors like the Houthis did in Babin Mendeb and what countries like the U.S. have done in recent years. Holding a Van Zawelen president. Or U.S. military strikes on boats in the Caribbean.
49:23It's exactly the same playbook. It's a hostage policy. Held the entire world hostage. We cannot differentiate it whether it happens in a dish dasha or in a suit. It's a sight to behold of the port of Al-Salif. The Galaxy Leader was anchored in the harbor under tight security till recently. The Galaxy Leader was taken to a port on the coast of Yemen, and its captive crew was held hostage for 430 days. The news media keeping a close eye on things. During that time, the Houthis continued to threaten other ships on Bab al-Mandeb, leading to some casualties, though some countries were given free reign to travel through it.
50:06The Houthis buy drones, buy toys, buy a lot of stuff from China. And that relationship is actually quite strong. And there was some intelligence report about the Russians trying to tip the Houthis about information and intelligence on Western ships. Goodbye, amen. Thank you very much. And go home now. Thank you. The crew of the Galaxy Leader was finally freed in January 2025 in response to the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. No one was killed while on board. A few months later, in July 2025, the Israeli Defense Forces said they'd bombed the port where the Galaxy Leader was being held.
50:45The IDF claimed, quote, Houthi forces installed a radar system on the ship and have been using it to track vessels in the international maritime arena to facilitate further terrorist activities. A Houthi spokesperson posted on X that they, quote, effectively repelled the Israeli attacks.
51:08Since then, the Houthis have been relatively quiet on the water. But in the last couple of weeks, they announced a renewed blockade of Israeli ships through Bab and Mendeb. And their involvement may soon escalate further, depending on whether the deal between the U.S. and Iran holds. Bab al-Mendab will always remain vulnerable. It's the opportunity and the problem of geography. And to have homeless and Bab al-Mendab closed together, that is an absolute nightmare, actually. There's also the question of whether the Houthis would be able to potentially target the undersea cables that run through Bab al-Mendab, which are essential to the internet worldwide.
51:49Then you will start having Google suffer, Microsoft suffer, Amazon suffer. I mean, as you're looking towards the future, do you think that that is likely to happen? I think everything is possible. This world is running out of sanity and leadership for the sake of stability. And even beyond Bab al-Mandab and Hormuz, if we look into the way military and wars and recent conflicts, They really have moved from the mountains and the land into the sea. Everyone is holding each other hostage. It's the sea. You can be the Houthis, you can be Putin, you can be Erdogan, you can be Iran. It's all about water.
52:37This is the world war of water. The world war of water. Whether it's the Suez or Panama Canal, a strait in the Persian Gulf, or a shipping lane in the Black Sea or the South China Sea. Geography might not be destiny, but it is leverage. And sometimes a few miles of water can shape events half a world away.
53:12And that's it for this week's show. I'm Randa Abdel Fattah. Through Line was created by me and Ramtin Adablui. This episode was produced by me and... Sarah Wyman. Casey Miner. Christina Kim. Devin Kadiyama. Kiana Moketan. Irene Noguchi. Liana Semstrom. Julia Redpath. Skylar Swenson. Amy Padula. Jasmine Romero. Thank you to Johannes Dergi, Cheyenne Butler, Yolanda Sanguini, and Tommy Evans. Archival audio in this episode includes clips from Tames TV, TRT World, and France 24. Fact-checking for this episode was done by Kevin Bockel. This episode was mixed by Jimmy Keely. Music for this episode was composed by Ramtin and his band, Drop Electric, which includes...
53:59Naveed Marvi. Sho Fujiwara. Anya Mizani. And finally, if you have an idea or like something you heard on the show, please write us at throughline at npr.org. And if you're open to us giving you a call back, leave your number too. We might feature your idea in an upcoming episode. Also, make sure to follow us on Apple, Spotify, or the NPR app. That way, you'll never miss an episode. Thanks for listening. This message comes from IXL, providing an online learning environment intended to keep student skills sharp over summer vacation. The platform covers core subjects and adapts to each child's pace.
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From the publisher
Guests:
Alex Von Tunzelmann, author of Blood and Sand: Suez, Hungary, and Eisenhower's Campaign for Peace
Harold Lee Wise, author of Inside the Danger Zone: The U.S. Military in the Persian Gulf, 1987-1988
Farea Al-Muslimi, Yemen and Gulf researcher at Chatham House in London
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