The Houthi insurgents of Yemen confirmed on Wednesday they have reached an agreement with the United States to “pause” their attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, in exchange for a pause in U.S. airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam hastened to add that the ceasefire with America has “no connection with our stance on supporting Gaza.”
“The support of the Yemeni nation for Gaza will expand in a better way,” he added.
It would be hard to expand in a worse way, as the U.S. and Israel finally took decisive action against Houthi piracy and terrorism this week. The Israelis inflicted heavy damage on Yemen’s international airport in the occupied capital of Sanaa on Tuesday, a rather pointed response to the Houthis managing to get a missile past U.S. and Israeli air defenses and detonate it near Ben Gurion Airport.
“Yemen’s position on the Palestinian issue and its support for Gaza will not change. We received requests from the U.S. through the Sultanate of Oman, and what changed was the U.S. position, while our stance remains unchanged,” Adul-Salam absurdly insisted.
“The statement made by Oman’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs clarifies that this agreement was for halting U.S. aggression against Yemen in exchange for halting attacks on U.S. ships, without any mention of targeting the territory occupied by the Zionist regime,” he said.
The U.S. has been hammering Houthi targets since March, inflicting enough damage to make the terror masters of Iran nervous about continued support for their Yemeni proxy.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday scrambled to distance Tehran from the Houthis, insisting Tehran had nothing to do with the missile attack on Ben Gurion airport. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against both the Houthis and Iran “at a time and place of our choosing.”
“The actions of the Yemenis in support of the Palestinian people was an independent decision stemming from their feeling of solidarity,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on March 17 that Tehran would be held accountable for Houthi terrorism.
“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!” the president declared.
Speaking to reporters from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said that the Houthis “don’t want to fight anymore,” so they worked out a ceasefire deal with Oman as intermediary.
“They have capitulated, but more importantly, we will take their own word. They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that’s the purpose of what we were doing,” he explained.
Oman said on Tuesday the Houthis made a deal with the U.S. that would ensure “freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping” in the Red Sea. The statement from Oman said nothing about Israel.
“Oman wanted to help end this conflict because it is a key player in the Iran-US talks that have taken place over the past month. It has sponsored the discussions and wants to show that they can succeed,” the Jerusalem Post observed on Tuesday.
Read the full article here