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Donald Trump said the US would stop its bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen in response to assurances from the Iranian-backed group that it would halt its attacks on ships in the region.
“The Houthis have announced . . . or they’ve announced to us, at least, that they don’t want to fight any more,” the US president said. “They just don’t want to fight, and we will honour that, and we will stop the bombings, and they have capitulated.”
Trump, who ordered expanded military strikes against the Houthis in March, made the surprise announcement as he met Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the White House on Tuesday.
It came hours after Israel bombed the airport in Sana’a, the Yemeni capital which is controlled by the Houthis, destroying its runway and aeroplanes. That was in retaliation for a Houthi missile that exploded close to Israel’s Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv on Sunday.
A person familiar with the matter said the Israeli government was not notified in advance and was “surprised” by Trump’s announcement.
And Yemeni analysts said there was no sign of a public announcement in which the group had said it would no longer attack shipping.
The Houthis began firing missiles and drones at merchant vessels in the Red Sea, one of the world’s key maritime trade routes, after Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack.
The group, which has been one of the most active members of Iran’s so-called axis of resistance, said it was acting in solidarity with the Palestinians and opposing Israel.
The militants halted their attacks after Israel and Hamas agreed to a fragile ceasefire in January. But they threatened to resume them after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government broke the ceasefire in March and renewed its offensive in Gaza.
Trump then authorised the most intense US bombing campaign in a decade, as he warned the Houthis that “hell will rain down upon” them if they attacked shipping in the Red Sea.
In the weeks since, the US military says it has been operating “24/7” against the rebels, hit more than 800 Houthi targets and killed “hundreds” of fighters.
But the battle-hardened group, which controls most of Yemen’s populous north, says it has shot down multiple US Reaper drones, attempted attacks on US naval vessels and fired more than a dozen missiles at Israel.
Mohammed Albasha, a Yemeni analyst and founder of the Basha Report, a US-based risk advisory, said if the US ends its operations against the rebels, “it’s very likely the Houthis will not retaliate”.
“Whether they’ve formally conveyed this to the Trump administration is unclear, but the practical dynamic seems straightforward — if the US stops hitting them, they’ll stop firing back,” Albasha said.
“That said, in light of the intense air strikes over the past 24 hours . . . and with Israeli military operations in Gaza still ongoing, it’s highly unlikely the Houthis will cease their attacks on Israel or shipping linked to it any time soon.”
Trump always insisted the military operation against the Houthis was to restore navigational freedom to the region’s waters.
But he also used it to sending a warning to Iran ahead of talks on its nuclear programme, saying he would hold Tehran responsible for “every shot” fired by the rebels and that the Islamic republic would face “dire” consequences for any attacks by the militants.
The Trump administration has since held three rounds of indirect talks with Iran over its expansive nuclear programme.
Next week, the US president is scheduled to travel to the oil-rich Gulf, with stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 to fight the Houthis and supported the ousted Yemeni government.
But Saudi Arabia has sought to extricate itself from the conflict since agreeing to a fragile truce with the Houthis in 2022.
