importance almost all of europe's trade with china japan india and the rest of asia passes through babel mendez every day that's how important it is some argue that washington sees terrorism in yemen as a problem in a sense that it could have an adverse impact on economic interests at stake the united states wouldn't be engaged in such a conflict in yemen if it didn't hold very specific geo political and strategic you said city or the u.s. i think most importantly of course is access to the strait which is one of the highest trafficked waterways in the world. the u.s. already has a vast military presence in the persian gulf to secure a key oil shipping lanes under the banner of chasing terrorists the u.s. is setting up new drone bases on the arabian peninsula including one in djibouti which is on the other side of the strait of. the arrangement of the united states government has with the yemeni government is basically one of bribery we bribe them with money and weapons and in exchange we get to bomb their country with impunity. but it may be a dangerous proposition for the yemeni government be