Oil prices surged as Iran-backed Houthis seized control of Yemen's port city of Mokha on Thursday - an area vital to controlling shipping through the Red Sea. Brent crude prices jumped as much as 4 per cent on Thursday above $105 a barrel amid concerns about disruptions to supply routes, and the US national average price of diesel surpassed $6 a gallon for the first time, according to price tracker GasBuddy. Yemeni government military sources said the rebel group had gained further leverage over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern ‌outlet of the Red Sea and one of the world's most important shipping routes, and had reached the islands of Hanish.The takeover gives Iran another potential point of leverage in its war with the US, and came just hours after President Donald Trump said he expected the Iran war to end after the US midterm elections. If the Houthis were to gain control of the waterway on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula from the Strait of Hormuz, it could give their backer Iran a critical advantage in the war with the United States, reducing supplies through a second major transit corridor and sending oil prices surging.It could also make it harder for Trump to find an exit from a war that has ​hurt his Republican Party's electoral prospects ahead of the November midterms.Yemen's Houthi-run humanitarian operations coordination centre said in a statement that Red Sea navigation is safe for all shipping companies except for Saudi ​vessels.Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has relied on the Red Sea route since the Iran conflict effectively closed Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil used ⁠to flow.