This is John Batchel, a conversation about choke points, the well-known Strait of Hormuz and the less well-known

Babo Mendeb. Bobo Mendeb has the unique opportunity to have a back door. That is the Suez Canal.

So as Edmund makes the point here, they're not quite the same, but then again, Saudi Arabia is very, very concerned about Babama and Deb,

and the Houthis, given the Strait of Hormuz, is now not trustworthy.

Here's Babam and Deb versus Strait of Hormuz versus the universe.

Edmund Fitton Brown, more tonight.

Well, I mean, they're slightly different, John, but really, I would say, comparable as issues,

because I think the fundamental point is you're talking about a fairly narrow international waterway,

both in the case of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.

The Red Sea is a little bit wider, and then you have each one of them controlled at one end by a strait.

And of those straits, the Barblemander again is slightly wider than the

straight of Hormuz. So in a sense, you might argue that the Red Sea could be slightly easier

to keep open because it's a bit wider. The strait is a bit wider., and also the Houthis perhaps less capable

than a sort of a fully armed and experienced nation-state like Iran.

But there's an important difference between the two.

The straight-of-hormuz is the only entrance to the Persian Gulf, whereas, of course, the Red Sea can be entered and exited via the

Suez Canal.