President Trump said on Tuesday that the US will stop bombing Yemen after the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, said they would “not be blowing up ships anymore.”
The president said that the Houthis said “they don’t want to fight anymore” and “we will honor that.”
“We will stop the bombings. They have capitulated… we will take their word that they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that’s the purpose of what we were doing,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
The president said the US would stop bombing Yemen “effective immediately.” US airstrikes were reported in Yemen early Tuesday morning, and Israel also launched heavy airstrikes against the Sanaa International Airport and other targets in the capital.
So far, there’s been no confirmation of the ceasefire with the US from the Houthis. Nearly a month ago, a senior Ansar Allah official offered to stop attacking US ships if the US stopped bombing Yemen, but vowed that operations against Israel would continue until there’s a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Houthis stopped attacks on Israel and on Red Sea shipping when the short-lived Gaza ceasefire went into effect on January 19. After Israel violated the deal by imposing a total blockade on Gaza, the Houthis announced they would re-impose the blockade on Israeli shipping.
It was in response to that announcement that the Trump administration launched its bombing campaign in Yemen on March 15. Since then, the US has launched over 1,000 strikes on Yemen, killing more than 200 civilians.