A senior Houthi official said Washington reached out after the group’s advance to Bab el-Mandeb, as US media reported Trump cancelled planned strikes at the last minute after a call with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Yemen’s Houthis have assured Washington that they would not attack US vessels in the Red Sea, following reports that the US cancelled its planned strikes on the group at the last minute, a senior Houthi official said on Monday.
Mohamed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ political bureau, said Washington reached out to the group after their rapid advance down Yemen’s western coast to the Bab el-Mandeb strait earlier this month.
“We confirmed that we are not targeting the United States, or any other nation, in the strait, with the sole exception of the Saudi enemy,” he said. “That remains the case.”
Al-Bukhaiti said the group have the capacity to fight a war on multiple fronts “should any nation become implicated in the aggression against Yemen alongside Saudi Arabia.”
Al-Bukhaiti’s comments came after US media reported that US President Donald Trump on Sunday pulled back from striking the Houthis at the last minute, just hours after deciding to target the Iran-backed group’s positions following a call with Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In an earlier indication that the US was mulling joining the fighting on Riyadh’s side, Trump cut short a weekend at Camp David, a secluded presidential complex in rural Maryland, to return unexpectedly to the White House.
The White House gave no explanation for the early return or comment on the reports. Instead, the US warned on Sunday that fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis could surge after a missile attack targeted Riyadh for the first time since the war in Yemen resumed.
Loud explosions rang out on Saturday in the Saudi capital and a fuel tank bearing the logo of oil giant Aramco caught on fire in an apparent strike on Riyadh airport.
“This military conflict has the potential to escalate rapidly,” the US State Department warned, adding US citizens outside the Middle East should “seriously reconsider travel to and through the region”.
Separately, the State Department restricted travel for US government employees to the Saudi cities of Taif and Yanbu, home to a major Red Sea oil export terminal that has previously been targeted by Houthi strikes.
Leave a comment