Oct 27, 2026 · 55 min · 13 segments
Hassan and Mike offer an insider perspective on the connected wars for control of the Bab El-Mandeb strait and access to the Red Sea. Following Houthi attacks on Riyadh and America's reluctance to…
Hassan DamlujiHost
Mike MartinHost
So work-wise, I chair an all parliamentary group in parliament on rearmament, and we've been running an inquiry about the state of the British military.
Interestingly, the things have reversed, right? In Afghanistan, we didn't really understand what we were doing.
In 2003, we put 50,000 troops into southern Iraq, right? We'd struggled to put 1,000 into Europe at the moment.
suggesting you relish it, but I'm just talking about the kind of capability, right? Look, you and I have spoken a lot about Iraq.
And that's mostly because we've got really good links with Ukraine, but there's no impetus and drive and money and this procurement system is sclerotic.
So, I mean, the key bit is the context has changed and the world now is super, super dangerous.
So this week, I think we're going to talk about the Red Sea and, you know, the Bab al-Mandab.
we're going to start big and we're going to look at those big picture stuff around what's happening in Saudi Arabia and great powers and how they're getting involved, like US.
Then we're going to zoom in a bit and look at what's going on in the Arabian Peninsula, particularly between UAE and Saudi Arabia.
And then we're going to drill down into some of those countries, both in the Horn of Africa, like Somalia and Ethiopia, and show that actually these conflicts have got another logic as well going into them.
So work-wise, I chair an all parliamentary group in parliament on rearmament, and we've been running an inquiry about the state of the British military.
Interestingly, the things have reversed, right? In Afghanistan, we didn't really understand what we were doing.
In 2003, we put 50,000 troops into southern Iraq, right? We'd struggled to put 1,000 into Europe at the moment.
suggesting you relish it, but I'm just talking about the kind of capability, right? Look, you and I have spoken a lot about Iraq.
And that's mostly because we've got really good links with Ukraine, but there's no impetus and drive and money and this procurement system is sclerotic.
So, I mean, the key bit is the context has changed and the world now is super, super dangerous.
So this week, I think we're going to talk about the Red Sea and, you know, the Bab al-Mandab.
we're going to start big and we're going to look at those big picture stuff around what's happening in Saudi Arabia and great powers and how they're getting involved, like US.
Then we're going to zoom in a bit and look at what's going on in the Arabian Peninsula, particularly between UAE and Saudi Arabia.
And then we're going to drill down into some of those countries, both in the Horn of Africa, like Somalia and Ethiopia, and show that actually these conflicts have got another logic as well going into them.
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