US President Donald Trump said that he was ordering a stop at almost two months of air strikes on the Yemen Houthis, saying that the rebels supported by Iran said that “they no longer want to fight” and have committed to stop attacking the expedition in the Red Sea.
“We are going to stop the bombing of the Houthis, with immediate effect,” said Trump at the start of his oval office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Trump said that the Houthis had “capitulated but, more importantly, we will say that they say they will no longer explode ships. And this is the goal of what we were doing”.
“I think it's very positive,” added Trump. “They eliminated a lot of ships.”
The Houthi rebels began to target ships in the Red Sea which, according to them, had links with Israel shortly after the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, in strikes which, according to them, were in solidarity with the Palestinians.
From November 2023 to January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant ships with missiles and drones, flowing two and killing four sailors.
This has half reduced the flow of commerce through the corridor of the Red Sea, which generally sees 1 billion of dollars (882 billion euros) of goods moving each year.
When asked how the Houthis had communicated that they were trying to stop being targeted by the United States, Trump gave some details, only saying that the information came from a “very good source”.
Oman’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Badr al-Busaidi, confirmed that the American air campaign ended, posting on X that discussions involving Washington and Muscat, as well as negotiators in Yemen, “resulted in a cease-fire agreement between the two parties”.
“In the future, none of the parties will target the other, including American ships, in the Red Sea and the Bab Al-Mandab Strait, guaranteeing freedom of navigation and the fluid flow of international commercial shipment,” he wrote.
In a statement, the Houthis said that his position towards Gaza had not changed and that his “initial understanding” with the United States would have no impact on his support for the Palestinians.
He was not clear in the declaration if it was on board the agreement with the United States.
The intensification of the American air strike campaign began in March, when Trump promised to use “an overwhelming mortal force” after the Houthis said that they would resume attacks against Israeli ships that sail in Yemen in response to the Israeli Blocking of the Gaza Strip.
At the time, they described the warning as affecting the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Strait of Bab El-Mandeb and the sea of Oman.
The announcement of the White House came the same day as the The Israeli army has launched strikes against the Houthis He said he had fully disabled the capital's international airport, Sanaa.
ADVERTISEMENTIsrael's attacks were its second cycle of air strikes on targets in Yemen in retaliation for a Houthi missile strike on Sunday near the Israel main airport.
Cost of the American operation
The costs of American ammunition used against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen in daily attacks since March 15 have totaled more than $ 750 million (660 million euros), said an American official.
The Trump administration has lost more than 2,000 ammunition on more than 1,000 targets, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details on the strikes.
The total is only a fraction of the total cost of the operation. It does not take into account the operating costs of two aircraft carriers, their warships that accompany him or the flight hours of the plane.
ADVERTISEMENTNor does he include Houthis destroying seven US MQ-9 Reaper drones, at a cost of more than 30 million dollars (26 million euros) each, or the loss of a fighter plane F / A-18 and the tug of the transporter USS Harry S. Truman when he maneuvered to avoid a Houthi missile and the jet fell from the carrier.
Despite the framing by Trump of the agreement as a means of reopening the Red Sea to the commercial shipment without fear of Houthi attack, “the Houthis have not fired on a commercial ship since December,” said Gregory Brew, principal analyst of the risk analysis of the Eurasia group, on X.
“However, they are probably to continue shooting Israel,” said Brew.
