Trump gets boost from Houthi ceasefire ahead of trip
A ceasefire deal between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and the U.S., mediated by Oman, has secured a tentative end to attacks on American ships in the Red Sea. But details are slim on the concessions made by both sides.
Still, the ceasefire allows the Trump administration to claim victory in clearing the pathway for commercial shipping. Attacks on vessels served to justify the U.S. military campaign against the designated-terrorist group in Yemen, which launched in earnest in mid-March.
“The Houthis have suffered major losses because of the airstrikes,” said Nadwa Al-Dawsari, associate fellow with the Middle East Institute.
“As the Houthis do whenever they are under serious military pressure, they agree to a ceasefire. In a way, the ceasefire for Iran and the Houthis is to prevent irreversible damage to Houthi capabilities on the ground.”
The deal comes ahead of a high-profile trip by President Trump to the Gulf nations next week, with his first stop in Saudi Arabia. The U.S. is also pursuing talks with Iran to defang its nuclear program — and the Islamic Republic is a primary backer to the Houthis.
“Trump clearly wanted an off-ramp so that he could claim progress before his visit to the region, and he also wanted to remove an irritant in the Iran nuclear talks,” said Daniel Shapiro, a distinguished fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative who most recently served as deputy assistant secretary of Defense for the Middle East in former President Biden’s administration.
“So he took a real, but rather modest, win in the Houthi commitment not to target U.S. ships,” he added.
Trump credited the U.S. strikes with bringing the Houthis to the table. Since mid-March, the U.S. military has said it has struck more than 1,000 targets in Yemen as part of Operation Rough Rider. The strikes have killed “hundreds” of Houthi fighters and leaders, including senior Houthi missile and UAV officials, and degraded their capabilities, Pentagon officials claimed late last month.
“We hit them very hard. They had a great capacity to withstand punishment. They took tremendous punishment. … But we honored their commitment and their word, they gave us their word that they wouldn’t be shooting ships anymore, and we honor that,” Trump said during a swearing-in ceremony in the Oval Office on Wednesday for his new ambassador to China, former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga).
Al-Dawsari said the ceasefire agreement came to fruition through different interventions and with different interests at play. She pointed to a visit from Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman Al Saud to Tehran in mid-April, where the message was for Iran to rein in the Houthis attacks on the shipping lanes.
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