Hegseth warns Iran will ‘pay consequence’ for backing Yemen’s Houthis
Pentagon chief threatens Tehran with military action despite nuclear talks set for Saturday in Rome; UK details strikes on Yemeni terror group, including drone manufacturing sites
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Iran on Wednesday that it will face consequences for supporting Yemen’s Houthi rebels, even as the United States has relaunched talks with Tehran over its nuclear program.
The United States and Iran have so far held three rounds of indirect talks, mediated by Gulf state Oman, aimed at sealing a deal that would block Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon but also lift crippling economic sanctions imposed by Washington.
The two sides will reconvene in Rome on Saturday.
“Message to IRAN: We see your LETHAL support to The Houthis. We know exactly what you are doing,” Hegseth wrote on X. “You know very well what the US Military is capable of — and you were warned. You will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing.”
Hegseth, on his personal X account, later reposted US President Donald Trump’s message on Truth Social from March in which the president said he would hold Iran responsible for any attacks carried out by the Houthi group, which has repeatedly targeted Israel and regional shipping with missile and drone attacks.
Iran’s leader has previously claimed that Yemen’s Houthis act independently.
https://t.co/DKl55mmFaT pic.twitter.com/vsVttencfH
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) May 1, 2025
The group controls northern Yemen and has struck shipping in the Red Sea in what it says is solidarity with the Palestinians.
The United States has carried out strikes against more than 1,000 targets since it ramped up an offensive against the group in March, with the UK joining in on the latest round of strikes on Wednesday.
The UK offered a detailed explanation for launching the strikes, in a departure from the US, which has offered few details since Trump took office in January.
The British Defense Ministry described the site attacked as “a cluster of buildings, used by the Houthis to manufacture drones of the type used to attack ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, located some 15 miles (25 kilometers) south of Sanaa.”
Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s took part in the raid, dropping Paveway IV guided bombs, the ministry added.
“The strike was conducted after dark, when the likelihood of any civilians being in the area was reduced yet further,” the ministry said.
The US military has surged assets in recent weeks to reinforce the Middle East. The Pentagon has deployed six B-2 bombers to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia — which experts say is an ideal position to operate in the Middle East.
Additionally, the US currently has two aircraft carriers in the Middle East and has moved air defense systems from Asia to the region.
While both Tehran and Washington have said they are set on pursuing diplomacy, they remain far apart on a dispute that has rumbled on for more than two decades.
Trump, in an interview with Time magazine earlier this month, said “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran,” but he repeated a threat of military action against Iran if diplomacy fails.
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels — whose slogan is “Death to America, Death to Israel, a Curse on the Jews” — began attacking Israel and maritime traffic in November 2023, a month after fellow Iran-backed terror group Hamas stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
The Houthis held their fire when a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Hamas in January 2025. By that point, they had fired some 40 ballistic missiles and several attack drones at Israel, including one that killed a civilian and wounded several others in Tel Aviv in July 2024. Israel carried out several strikes on Houthi sites in Yemen in response to the attacks.
The Gaza ceasefire collapsed in March, with Israel resuming its attacks on Hamas and the Houthis restarting their missile attacks on Israel, including in recent days.
Houthi attacks have prevented ships from passing through the Suez Canal — a vital route that normally carries about 12 percent of the world’s shipping traffic — forcing many companies into a costly detour around the tip of southern Africa.
The United States first began conducting strikes against the Houthis under the Biden administration, and Trump has vowed that military action against the rebels will continue until they are no longer a threat to shipping.
The Trump administration has been forced onto the political defensive during the Yemen campaign by scandals stemming from senior officials’ use of commercial messaging app Signal to discuss strikes that took place on March 15.
Last month, The Atlantic magazine revealed that its editor-in-chief was mistakenly included in a Signal chat in which officials, including Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, discussed the strikes.
US media outlets then reported earlier this month that Hegseth had shared information on the same strikes in a second Signal group chat with various people who would not normally be involved in such discussions, including his wife.
The Times of Israel Community.