Trump says Iran must end help for Houthis
US president Donald Trump says it's not enough for Iran to reduce its support of Houthis and all arms provisions must end, citing reports that Tehran has rolled back its supplies to the Yemen group.
"Reports are coming in that while Iran has lessened its intensity on Military Equipment and General Support to the Houthis, they are still sending large levels of Supplies," Trump posted on TruthSocial on Wednesday. "Iran must stop the sending of these Supplies IMMEDIATELY."
The social media announcement comes a few days after another post in which he said Tehran will be held responsible for Houthi attacks and threatened the theocracy with "dire" consequences.
"Let the Houthis fight it out themselves," Trump's Wednesday message reads. "Either way they lose, but this way they lose quickly ... It’s not even a fair fight, and never will be. They will be completely annihilated!"
Trump on Saturday ordered large-scale military strikes against dozens of targets in Yemen controlled by Tehran-backed Houthi armed group, saying the attacks aimed at ensuring freedom of navigation through shipping lanes the militants have targeted.
Fresh US air strikes hit Yemen on Monday, the Houthis' Al Masirah TV reported. The Houthi-run health ministry said on Sunday that at least 53 people were killed in the attacks.
At a Pentagon press conference on Monday, lieutenant general Alexus Grynkewich told reporters that military casualties among the Houthis were in the dozens but there were no indications of civilian casualties.
Shortly after Israel's incursion into Gaza triggered by a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, the Shi'ite militant group which seized control of much of Yemen started missile and drone strikes against commercial and military vessels in the Red and Arabian Seas.
They described the effort as a blockade in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Iran and the Houthis have denied close military coordination but weapons experts have linked the Yemeni fighters' advanced arsenal of anti-ship and ballistic missiles to Iranian technology.
US forces have been locked in their most intense naval combat since World War II with the Houthis but have yet to constrain the maritime attacks.
As ceasefires have taken hold pausing combat between Israel and its badly bludgeoned Hamas and Hezbollah militant adversaries, the Houthis have become the vanguard of Tehran's network of armed affiliates in the Middle East.
The Trump administration views their continued harassment of commercial shipping as an obstacle to his fight to bring down prices for US consumers and continued but largely ineffectual targeting of US forces as a nuisance.
"Iran has played “the innocent victim” of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control," Trump said.
Trump this month demanded Iran agree new deal over its nuclear program or face military attack - an overture rejected by Iran's Supreme Leader as bullying.
Ali Khamenei warned Washington would come off worst in any confrontation, insisting that Iran had not been weakened by over a year of direct and proxy conflict with Israel.