[petesergeant]

> For that matter, how do they benefit from naval coercion in the Gulf?

Various members of the GCC (UAE, Saudi) can't ever really pressure Iran, because Iran's control of the Strait of Hormuz mean they can massively disrupt oil and gas exports, and the Khaleeji countries are heavily reliant on these, despite valiant efforts to diversify.

> What does Iran get out of helping the Houthi disrupt commercial shipping?

Iran's lesson learned from the above is that that's super useful, and they'd like to be able to do the same thing to the rest of the world.