Yemen: PonteSud – Charissa Swanepoel
US President Donald Trump has said he’s ordering a halt to nearly two months of air strikes on Yemen’s Houthis, saying the Iran-backed rebels have indicated that “they don’t want to fight anymore” and have pledged to stop attacking shipping in the Red Sea.
“We’re going to stop the bombing of the Houthis, effective immediately,” Trump said at the start of his Oval Office meeting with Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Trump said the Houthis had “capitulated but, more importantly, we will take their word that they say they will not be blowing up ships anymore. And that’s what the purpose of what we were doing.”
“I think that’s very positive,” Trump added. “They were knocking out a lot of ships.”
From November 2023 until January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two and killing four sailors.
Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, confirmed that the US aerial campaign was ending, posting on X that discussions involving the Washington and Muscat, as well as negotiators in Yemen, “have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides.”
“In the future, neither side will target the other, including American vessels, in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping,” he wrote.
In a statement, the Houthis said that its position toward Gaza hadn’t changed and its “initial understanding” with the US would not impact its support for the Palestinians.
The intensified US campaign of air strikes began in March, when Trump promised to use “overwhelming lethal force” after the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli vessels sailing off Yemen in response to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Despite Trump’s framing of the deal as a way to reopen the Red Sea to commercial shipping without fear of Houthi attack, “the Houthis have not fired on a commercial ship since December,” Gregory Brew, a senior analyst with the Eurasia Group risk-analysis firm, said on X.
