Yesterday President Donald Trump announced the end of the U.S. war against the Houthis in Yemen. The United States, he said, will immediately end its bombing campaign against the Houthis, claiming that the they informed the administration “they don’t want to fight anymore.”
“We will honor that and we will stop the bombings,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, claiming the Houthis “capitulated.”
“We will take their word. They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that was the purpose of what we’ve been doing,” he continued. “I think that’s very positive. They were knocking out a lot of ships sailing beautifully down the various seas.”
Houthi leaders have expressed some skepticism of Trump’s claims. Salim Al-Moghales, who is a member of the Houthis Politburo, called Trump’s announcement surprising. “We said yesterday that there was a quiet decline in the enemy’s rhetoric after the blessed missile attack on [the Ben Gurion Airport], and today Trump announced in a surprising manner that he would stop the American bombing of Yemen immediately and that there would a positive announcement,” Al-Moghales reportedly wrote on X. “We affirm that we will not abandon Gaza and will continue until the aggression against it stops.”
While Trump portrayed the Houthis as having surrendered to the U.S., there are indications that the truth is a bit more complicated than that. [According to Middle East Eye](https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-saudi-arabia-pressed-trump-stop-attacks-yemen-ahead-visit}, the Saudis had been lobbying the U.S. to stop all U.S. attacks on Yemen ahead of Trump’s visit to the Kingdom later this month, warning that it would create an “embarrassing situation” for Riyadh and the U.S. “Trump appears to be meeting a Saudi ‘ask’ to stop strikes ahead of his visit,” one of two unnamed U.S. officials told MEE.
Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi confirmed Trump’s announcement on X, adding that his country had been mediating a “ceasefire” between the U.S. and the Houthis. “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,’ al-Busaidi wrote on X.
A source familiar with the issue told Axios that a truce with the Houthis had been negotiated in recent days by White House envoy Steve Witkoff through Omani mediators. An Omani Foreign Ministry spokesperson said those “efforts have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides.”
Israeli officials say they were blind-sided by Trump’s announcement. A senior Israeli official told Axios the U.S. didn’t notify Israel in advance of Trump’s announcement. “We didn’t know about this. Trump surprised us,” the official said.
