Trump says the US will stop bombing Yemen’s Houthis after rebels say they’ll stop targeting ships

By WILL WEISSERT WASHINGTON AP President Donald Trump mentioned Tuesday that he s ordering a halt to nearly two months of U S airstrikes on Yemen s Houthis saying the Iran-backed rebels have indicated that they don t want to fight anymore and have pledged to stop attacking ships along a vital global business road Related Articles Declassified intelligence memo contradicts Trump s insists linking gang to Venezuelan governing body Executive watchdog expects Medicaid work requirement analysis by fall Judge bars Trump administration from shrinking agencies that fund libraries settle labor disputes Critic of drug industry and COVID- measures to lead FDA vaccine operation Rwanda says it s talking with the US about taking in third-country deportees Here s why We re going to stop the bombing of the Houthis effective promptly Trump stated at the start of his Oval Office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney Trump reported the Houthis had indicated to U S representatives that they don t want to fight anymore They just don t want to fight And we will honor that and we will stop the bombings That likely means an abrupt end to a campaign of airstrikes that began in March when Trump promised to use overwhelming lethal force after the Houthis noted they would resume attacks on Israeli vessels sailing off Yemen in response to Israel s mounting another blockade on the Gaza Strip At the time they described the warning as affecting the Red Sea the Gulf of Aden the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Arabian Sea Trump s announcement came the same day that Israel s military launched airstrikes against the Houthis that it announced fully disabled the international airport in the Yemeni capital Sanaa Israel s attacks were its second round of airstrikes on targets in Yemen in retaliation for a Houthi missile strike Sunday on Israel s international airport A U S official revealed the administration had not notified Israel of the agreement with the Houthis before Trump s announcement Israel according to this official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic talks was irked by the unexpected news particularly because the Houthis have continued to launch attacks on Israel proper and other Israeli targets Israel does not appear to be covered by the U S -Houthi agreement Trump disclosed the Houthis had capitulated but more importantly we will take their word that they say they will not be blowing up ships anymore And that s what the purpose of what we were doing Trump announced I think that s very positive Trump added They were knocking out a lot of ships Requested how the Houthis had communicated that they were looking to stop being targeted by U S bombs Trump offered scarce details saying only with a chuckle that the information came from a very good source A short time later Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi ratified that the U S bombing campaign was ending posting on X that discussions involving the U S and Oman as well as negotiators in Yemen have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides In the future neither side will target the other including American vessels in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping he wrote calling the agreement a welcome outcome Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reported on social media that Trump s objective from Day One ensuring freedom of navigation PEACE THRU STRENGTH in action Despite Trump s framing of the deal as a way to reopen the Red Sea to commercial shipping without fear of Houthi attack the Houthis have not fired on a commercial ship since December Gregory Brew a senior analyst with the Eurasia Group risk-analysis firm reported on X They are likely however to continue shooting at Israel Brew noted The Houthis had been waging persistent missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip From November until January the Houthis targeted more than merchant vessels with missiles and drones sinking two of them and killing four sailors That has greatly reduced the flow of bargain through the Red Sea corridor which typically sees trillion of goods move through it annually The Houthis paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the U S launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March Those strikes Trump had ordered were similar to ones carried out against the Houthis multiple times by the administration of his predecessor Democratic President Joe Biden The Trump-ordered airstrikes gained a higher profile in the inhabitants consciousness when The Atlantic revealed that Hegseth had texted sensitive plans for a military strike against the Houthis on a group chat in the messaging app Signal that mistakenly included the magazine s editor-in-chief Trump stood by Hegseth and downplayed the breach as a glitch But national safeguard adviser Mike Waltz who created the group chat on Signal left his post last week and has been nominated by Trump to be the U S ambassador to the United Nations Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this description