Trump says US ‘will stop’ bombing Yemen’s Houthis, claims ‘they don’t want to fight anymore’
President Trump revealed Tuesday that Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen have “capitulated,” agreeing to stop attacking American vessels in the Red Sea and that his administration will cease strikes on them in response.
“We had some very good news last night, the Houthis have announced … to us that they don’t want to fight anymore,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office while meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“They just don’t want to fight. And we will honor that, and we will stop the bombings, and they have capitulated, but more importantly, we will take their word [when] they say they will not be blowing up ships anymore.”
There was no immediate confirmation of the comments by Trump, who called the development “very positive” and added that “we just found out about that.”It is also not entirely clear whether the Houthis’ purported halt on vessel strikes is limited to American ships specifically.
The cease-fire deal calls only on the US and Houthis to avoid targeting each other in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, according to mediators in Oman.
The deal was secured in recent days by White House special envoy Steve Witkoff, .
It makes no mention of the rebel attacks on Israel, which was hit by a Houthi ballistic missile on Sunday that left six people injured and suspended flights at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
Israeli officials claim the Jewish state was not given any advance notice by the Trump administration, leaving Jerusalem completely blindsided, according to several Hebrew media outlets.
The Red Sea is a major trade and oil transit route that benefits US allies in Europe and Asia, and hundreds of vessels pass through it each day.
“These are a band of individuals with advanced weaponry that were threatening global shipping,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after Trump’s announcement. “And the job was to get that to stop.”
The Houthis have repeatedly attacked ships traversing the Red Sea since Hamas’ attack on Israel Oct. 7, 2023.
The Trump administration had been carrying out retaliatory strikes meant to deter the aggression.
Since March, the US has hit at least 800 targets in Yemen and killed scores of Houthi fighters, according to US Central Command. Those strikes against the Houthis had intensified since mid-March.
Houthi strikes had forced numerous ships there to divert course, slowing the pace of maritime trade. A Houthi spokesperson previously told DropSite News that the US-designated terror organization would agree to stop firing upon US ships if the Trump administration also agreed to stop bombing them.
“We do not consider ourselves at war with the American people,” Houthi spokesperson Mohammed al-Bukhaiti last month. “If the US stops targeting Yemen, we will cease our military operations against it.”
Senior Houthi official Deifullah al-Shami also claimed Trump was “lying” about the cease-fire to “save face,” adding that the group’s attacks against Israel will not stop.
“We will not allow any ship, any Israeli ship, to arrive at its port until the aggression against Gaza is stopped and the siege is lifted,” he told Al-Mayadeen.
Trump’s announcement Tuesday came after an Israeli strike on Yemen’s capital city of Sanaa to retaliate against Houthi terrorists who hit the nation’s main international airport and power plants.
It also comes ahead of Trump’s planned trip to the Middle East next week, where he is expected to swing through Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates as part of his second major international trip in his second term.
The president teased that a “very, very big” and “positive” announcement is coming ahead of that three-country trek, but did not elaborate on specifics.
The Houthis, which , pushed out Yemen’s Western-backed government in 2015 following the outbreak of civil war the previous September and hold most of the country’s territory.
