"As recently as last week, the Iran war appeared to be turning slightly in America's favor," writes Robert Worth. "The Houthis - the Yemen-based militia that is Iran's most formidable remaining ally in the Middle East - were under pressure from their local rivals, and the Saudi air force was pounding them with air strikes. The president of Yemen's internationally recognized government issued a triumphant statement declaring that the Houthis' miscalculations will open the door to their complete collapse.' With their Houthi partners wounded, Iran's leaders would have one more reason to back down and agree to Donald Trump's terms."

Yesterday morning, those delusions drifted away like smoke as Houthi forces broke through their enemies' defenses and seized the towns and islands around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the most important maritime choke points in the world.

That loss leaves Trump, who had been hoping to win back control of the Strait of Hormuz from Iran, with a bitter surprise. His enemies now control both of the two important straits in the Middle East, through which a combined total of about a third of the world's oil shipments pass every day.