Mona Yacoubian

Mona Yacoubian is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, where she focuses on the Middle East and North Africa. In commentary cited in Wall Street Journal reporting on 14 April 2026, she warned that the Houthis in Yemen "could engage on Red Sea shipping" if the US Hormuz blockade tightens, flagging the risk that Saudi Arabia's southern flank could become a second pressure point in the Iran conflict. Her analysis formed part of the context for reporting on Saudi Arabia pressing Washington to lift the blockade and return to negotiations.

Yacoubian previously served at the US Department of State and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), focusing on the Middle East. At CSIS she has written extensively on Lebanon, Yemen, and broader political transitions across the Arab world. Her work sits in the analyst-practitioner tradition common to Washington think tanks: part academic, part policy advisory, regularly cited in government deliberations and major news publications.

Her warning about Houthi engagement on Red Sea shipping is significant because it triangulates three overlapping risks: the blockade's potential to provoke Houthi retaliation, Saudi Arabia's vulnerability at the Bab al-Mandeb, and the risk that the Iran crisis metastasises from the Gulf into the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia had, by mid-April, already seen the Petroline pipeline restored to 7 mbpd as a partial hedge against Hormuz disruption, but Bab al-Mandeb exposure remained an unresolved vulnerability.