The Trump administration is running out of good options in the Middle East after Iranian-backed Houthi militants seized more strategic territory — and further squeezed world energy markets.

The administration could join the fray after Yemeni forces, supported by Saudi Arabia, failed to repel the Houthis’ capture of the Red Sea port of Mokha and three islands key to controlling the waterway.

Or the White House could leave the region to sort out the Houthis alone, and bear the pain of oil prices that spiraled up to $109 a barrel Monday. The spike was caused by both the choking of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait passageway to the Red Sea and the closure of a critical Saudi Arabian oil pipeline following an attack Riyadh blamed on Iran-backed militias in Iraq.

Neither policy choice for the U.S. is terribly appealing, and one Arab diplomat in the region sensed inaction from the U.S., or “a kind of disregard.”