Houthi forces took the port of Mokha on Thursday. [1] The New York Times filed the seizure. [1] Friday added Perim Island. Monday added the Hanish archipelago. Three Red Sea points in four days, each on its own clock. Recapturing Mokha in a hold would collapse the sequence this paper spent the week building.

Mokha is a mainland port. Perim sits inside the strait. Hanish lies 160 kilometres north of it. A reader who merges the three has one big capture; the map has three small ones, none of them Hormuz.

The week reads as an archipelago campaign advancing point by point: port, then island, then islands. Monday's news is the third point. Thursday's port stays Thursday's. Mokha matters because it is the Red Sea's southernmost mainland harbor, the refueling stop that makes the island seizures logistically possible. Take the port first and the islands become suppliable; the sequence is operational, not coincidental.

Operational sequences continue; Monday's continues. Continuation is the update. Harbors enable islands.

Harbors enable islands; Monday's Mokha is still Thursday's port. Perim was Friday. No new quay here.

Take the port first and the islands become suppliable. Monday's Mokha is still Thursday's port. Perim was Friday.

Hanish is the Monday name; Perim remains Friday's island in the strait. Mokha remains a mainland quay taken Thursday, not a prize to seize again in this brief. Four days produced three points, none of them Hormuz. Date the points; do not stack the captures.
Monday's named island is Hanish, not a recapture of Mokha. Perim was Friday. Monday's Mokha is still Thursday's port.

-- PRIYA SHARMA, Delhi