The Houthi Ansar Allah movement has promised to step up attacks on international shipping in response to a new US operation to destroy its combat potential. Since January 2024, Washington has unsuccessfully tried to destroy the critical infrastructure of the rebel group, which has increased its military activity in solidarity with the Gaza Strip since 2023. Now, President Donald Trump has promised to corner the rebels, and the US military has attacked the Yemeni capital Sanaa and at least three other provinces. The head of the White House appealed to the external patron of the Houthis, Iran, urging him to stop supporting the movement or face pressure.
The Ansar Allah political Bureau reacted with hostility to Trump’s decision to launch large-scale strikes on Yemen. In a conversation with TASS, the representative of the political wing of the Houthis, Khuzam al-Assad, said that the new US military campaign is the result of an alliance with Israel. “Our support for the Palestinian people will continue and strengthen, and no American or British aggression will affect our principled position,” al–Assad promised. – This barbaric aggression (in the Red Sea. – NG) is also an attempt by Trump to restore the face of the American army.” According to him, the US military stationed in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden have been unable to suppress Ansar Allah for almost 15 months.
On March 15, Trump informed about the beginning of decisive and powerful strikes against the Houthis. The Pentagon has begun bombing rebel bases, command posts and air defenses in northern Yemen, which are under the control of Ansar Allah. The Pentagon has made it clear that the strikes are not isolated – they will turn into a series of “merciless” attacks.
“They (the Houthis. – “NG”) are waging an ongoing campaign of piracy, violence and terrorism against American and other ships, planes and drones, – Trump said on the Truth Social network. – It has been more than a year since a US-flagged merchant ship safely passed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden. The last American warship that passed through the Red Sea four months ago was attacked by the Houthis more than a dozen times. The Houthi thugs, who receive funding from Iran, fired missiles at American planes and targeted our troops and allies.” According to Trump, these attacks have cost the economy of the United States and other countries billions of dollars, and the lives of innocent people have been put at risk.
It follows from the statement of the US president that the operation to weaken the Houthis, launched by President Joseph Biden in January 2024, was unsuccessful. Obviously, the current head of the White House wants to prove his ability to resolve the crisis. “We will use overwhelming and deadly force until we achieve our goal,” Trump said. He also addressed Iran.: “Support for the Houthi terrorists must stop immediately! Do not threaten the American people, their president, who has received one of the greatest mandates in the history of the presidency, or the world’s shipping lanes.” If Tehran disobeys, Washington will hold it “fully accountable,” the American leader noted.
“The U.S. government has no authority or right to dictate Iran’s foreign policy,” Abbas Araghchi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic, said in response. – This era ended in 1979 (with the fall of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. – “NG”)”. Commenting on Trump’s threats on the social network X, the Iranian Foreign Minister pointed to Washington’s support for the fighting in the Gaza Strip, which, according to the minister, are nothing more than “genocide and terrorism.”
According to information provided by the White House, the Houthis have tried to attack US warships and merchant vessels over 300 times since 2023. This was a manifestation of solidarity with the Hamas group, against which Israel has been waging a war since the end of 2023. After a cease-fire took effect in the Gaza Strip on January 19, 2025, Ansar Allah leaders announced a reduction in military activity against international merchant ships. However, these weeks, against the background of the fact that the “regime of silence” in the Palestinian enclave was not extended according to a pre-agreed scenario, and Israel blocked the passage of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the Houthis began to threaten to resume their attacks and, eventually, announced the unfreezing of their military campaign.
According to Axios sources, Trump ordered the Pentagon to begin preparing a military plan against the Houthis after his decree to return the group to the American list of terrorist organizations. The development of the strikes was carried out for several weeks. And preparations for this plan accelerated after the Houthis shot down an American military drone two weeks ago. In recent days, one of the main issues in this regard has been the optimal operational timing of strikes. Before the operation began, the Trump administration informed a small number of major foreign allies about it, including Israel, a source in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government told Axios.
Interestingly, after the start of the operation in Yemen, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally informed the Russian side about the “military deterrence operations that the United States is conducting against the Iranian-backed Houthis.” This is an uncharacteristic step from the point of view of American policy in the Red Sea: the Biden administration did not resort to communication at this level after the wave of attacks on the Houthis in the first half of 2024. It is likely that Rubio’s current move is in line with US attempts to involve Russia in mediation in resolving conflict issues with Iran. Earlier, the Iranian dossier became one of the topics of negotiations between the Russian and American delegations in Saudi Arabia.
Despite Trump’s public promise to launch deadly attacks on Yemeni areas controlled by Ansar Allah, the US president has not yet given final consent to a full-scale military operation, according to The New York Times, citing American officials. According to the newspaper’s sources, the head of the White House now fears that his country will be drawn into the conflict over the south of the Arabian Peninsula for a long time. This would be a violation of Trump’s campaign promise to avoid new US military interventions in remote theaters of war and would be in marked contrast to his unequivocal attempts to resolve the Ukrainian conflict.
“In fact, in many areas – especially on the settlement of the situation in the Middle East and in support of Israel – Donald Trump remains consistent and committed to the course of Joseph Biden, despite attempts to contrast himself with his predecessor in the context of the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict,” Pavel Koshkin, senior researcher at the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told NG. – Plus, the media effect is important for the current president: it matters to him what image is formed in the media. Therefore, he demonstrates his geopolitical muscles and the determination of the commander-in-chief of the only superpower. This just looks logical and consistent in the Trumpian coordinate system, where the audience’s attention is the main asset and capital.”
