Excited to announce the launch of my US-based consultancy, Basha Report LLC. Thrilled to share my latest interview under this new affiliation. Written by @CathrinSchaer fro @dwnews: It is quite plausible that the Houthis could use HOCC as a "rent-seeking mechanism," Mohammed Albasha, founder of the Basha Report, a US-based consultancy specializing in the Middle East and Yemen, told DW. Through its various communications with shipping firms, the HOCC may even have developed a "target base," he added. "I don't have any concrete information to support it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are indeed beginning to generate income from a virtual checkpoint," Albasha suggested. "In this scenario, the HOCC may initially charge vessels a registration fee and later require payments for safe passage," he explained. "A precedent for this can be seen in the early 2010s, when companies tied to Yemeni military and security officials worked with maritime-security brokers to rent Yemeni warships and sailors as private escorts for [vessels] crossing the piracy-ridden Gulf of Aden, at costs reaching up to $55,000 per ship, per trip." However, Albasha also doubts the UN experts' figure of $2.2 billion annually. "That claim seems difficult to reconcile," he agreed. "For context, the Suez Canal's revenue dropped by 64.3% in May 2024, falling to $337.8 million from $648 million in May 2023. To assert that the Houthis, who neither control a canal nor dominate the entire Red Sea coast … are earning nearly $200 million per month in a region where shipping activity has halved, is hard to believe."