Reports: Iran pressed Houthis into truce with US to build ‘momentum’ in nuclear talks
Two Iranian officials say Tehran persuaded Yemen rebel group to stop attacking US shipping; Washington sources say Oman-mediated move aimed at furthering nuclear negotiations
Iran leaned on Yemen’s Houthi rebel group to reach a truce with the US over attacks in the Red Sea in a move aimed at pushing along negotiations for an agreement over Tehran’s nuclear program, according to reports.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening announced an end to hostilities with the Houthis, catching Israeli officials by surprise. The announcement did not mention the ongoing Houthi missile and drone attacks on Israel, and officials for the Yemeni rebel group pledged that such strikes would continue.
Two Iranian officials, one from the foreign ministry and the other from the Revolutionary Guards, said that Iran had persuaded the Houthis to stop their attacks on US assets as part of the Omani mediation efforts, The New York Times reported.
CNN cited people familiar with the matter as saying Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff had worked with the Omanis over the past week to broker the US-Houthi ceasefire. The sources said the ceasefire was also meant to help build momentum in the Iran nuclear talks, which Witkoff has also been leading on behalf of the Trump administration.
There have been three rounds of nuclear talks already, though a date for the fourth has not yet been set, though it is likely to take place this weekend.
Oman is mediating the nuclear talks too, and has hosted some of the rounds.
Trump, who withdrew the US from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, has signaled confidence in clinching a new pact that blocks Iran’s path to a nuclear bomb, but has threatened to attack if diplomacy fails.
While announcing the truce with the Houthis, Trump, who is set to visit the Middle East this month, also said he had a “very, very, very big announcement to make… like as big as it gets… and it’s really positive.” The president said he would only give details later in the week.
Oman later revealed it had mediated the ceasefire deal, according to which neither side will target the other, including US vessels in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait.
According to CNN, negotiations between the US and the Houthis were stimulated by remarks from US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who last week posted to X that Iran “will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing” if it continues “lethal support to the Houthis.”
A US official said the Trump administration did not notify Israel ahead of time of an agreement with the Houthis to halt attacks.
Israel only learned of the ceasefire when Trump announced it publicly during an Oval Office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The comment from the US official confirmed Hebrew-language media reports that quoted Israeli officials as saying Jerusalem was caught off guard by the announcement.
The Houthis’ chief negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam told Reuters on Wednesday that the ceasefire does not address operations against Israel “in any way, shape or form.”
In a statement Tuesday, the Houthis said that their “initial understanding” with the US would not impact their support for the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is at war with the Hamas terror group.
In remarks to the Houthi-run Saba news agency cited by The Times, Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Houthis’ Supreme Political Council, also said, “There is no turning back from supporting Gaza, no matter the cost. What happened proves that our strikes are painful and will continue.”
Mashat was apparently referring to an exchange of fire between Israel and the Houthis in recent days, after a Houthi ballistic missile landed inside the perimeter of Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday, injuring several people and prompting sweeping Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s Hodeida port and other Houthi infrastructure targets on Monday. Those strikes were followed on Tuesday by further attacks that the Israeli military said had “completely disabled” Sanaa International Airport in the Houthi-controlled capital. The strike was estimated to have caused some $500 million worth of damage.
Asked later Tuesday about Houthi pledges to continue attacks against Israel, Trump responded, “I’ll discuss that if something happens.”
“I don’t know about that, but I know one thing: They want nothing to do with us, and they let that be known through all of their surrogates,” the president told reporters.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the leading Trump loyalists in the upper chamber of US Congress, indicated Israel is on its own in defending itself from attacks by Iran and its proxies.
“As to the Houthis continuing to attack Israel — they do so at Iran’s own peril. Without Iran, the Houthis do not possess the capability to attack America, international shipping or Israel,” Graham wrote on X. “To my friends in Israel, do what you have to do to protect your airspace and your people. It is long past time to consider hitting Iran hard. It wouldn’t take much to put Iran out of the oil business.”
In recent weeks, the Iranians have repeatedly said they have no control over the Houthis.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in March, said that the Houthis, an Iran-aligned terror group that controls much of Yemen, act on their own.
Trump at the time had said he would hold Iran responsible for any attacks carried out by the Houthis, as the American military carried out waves of strikes against the group, in the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since he returned to the White House.
The United States and other Western countries have long accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons — a claim Tehran denies, insisting that its atomic program is solely for civilian purposes. But Iran, which openly seeks Israel’s destruction, has ramped up its enrichment of uranium to 60 percent purity, which has no peaceful application, and has obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities.
The Times of Israel Community.