An oil tanker passing through the Red Sea near Yemen suffered an attack on Wednesday perpetrated by unknown agents , according to the European Union’s naval forces. The assailants used rocket-propelled grenades on a tanker bearing the Marshall Islands’ flag in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is the focus of the proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran being fought as the Yemeni Civil War. Four million barrels of oil cross the strait on a daily basis, headed to various destinations in Europe, the United States, and Asia. Yemen’s Red Sea port, near the Bab al-Mandab strait, is currently controlled by Shi’ite Houthis. Whichever party maintains control of it has a strategic advantage because it provides a direct connection the Middle East (where the world’s largest proven oil reserves are) and Sub-Saharan Africa (a region expected to see a four-fold increase in energy demand by 2040), making it a […]