Washington, May 7, (dpa/GNA) – President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Yemen’s Houthi rebels, have “capitulated” to the United States, and have agreed to stop attacking ships in the Red Sea.
Trump, speaking at the White House said in return, the US will end its bombing campaign against the Iran-aligned group “effective immediately.”
“The Houthis have announced … that they don’t want to fight any more. They just don’t want to fight. And we will honour that. And we will we will stop the bombings. And they have capitulated,” he said alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“They’ve said, ‘Please don’t bomb us any more. We’re not going to attack your ships,’” Trump said.
The Houthis have yet to publicly comment.
Houthi militants have been attacking ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since October 2023, in what they say is retaliation for Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip.
The threat led major shipping companies to avoid the shortest sea route between Asia and Europe, and sailing the much longer journey around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope instead.
The Houthis have said they want to force an end to the Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, which followed the unprecedented massacre by the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Several countries, including the United States and United Kingdom, launched operations to protect ships in the region in response to the Houthi attacks. The US, Britain and Israel have launched several rounds of strikes against Houthi sites in Yemen in recent months.
The Houthi militia had earlier Tuesday, threatened retaliation following Israeli attacks on the airport in the capital, Sanaa.
The attacks “will not go unanswered,” said the Houthi’s political bureau in a statement.
GNA