Illustrative image. (The U.S. Central Command)
United States President Donald Trump on March 26 claimed that the Houthis (Ansar Allah) “want peace” after more than a week of U.S. strikes on areas controlled by the group in Yemen.
“The Houthis are looking to do something. They want to know, ‘How do we stop? How do we stop? How can we have peace?’ The Houthis want peace because they’re getting the hell knocked out of them,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
“The Houthis are dying for peace. They don’t want this… They were knocking ships out of the ocean…. In the Suez Canal, they only have about 20% of the ships going through. They have to go through a different way, which takes weeks of travel, and that really affects commerce.”
“But the Houthis have been hit hard, and they want to negotiate peace,” Trump continued. “The Houthis have been horrible to the world. They’ve killed a lot of people and knocked out a lot of ships and planes and anything else… They have been hit harder than they have ever been.”
The U.S. military resumed strikes against Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen on March 15 on orders from President Donald Trump, who said that the large-scale operation was launched in response to the group’s renewed attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. So far, the operation has claimed the lives of 56 people, including civilians and Houthi commanders.
In his recent remarks, Trump suggested the U.S. strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen may continue for some time without elaborating.
“They want us to stop so badly… They’ve got to say, ‘No mas.’ But I can only say that the attacks every day, every night… have been very successful beyond our wildest expectations… We’re going to do it for a long time. We can keep it going for a long time,” Trump said.
Mahdi Al Mashat, chairman of the Supreme Political Council of the Houthis, recently vowed that the group will continue to launch attacks in support of the Gaza Strip.
In a televised address marking “National Resilience Day” commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Saudi-led coalition’s initial strikes on Yemen on March 25, the senior Houthi official addressed Trump, asserting that “the entirety of your presidential term would be insufficient to dissuade us.”
“Your decision to attack our country will not succeed in halting our operations supporting Gaza,” he added.
A series of U.S. strikes hit the outskirts of the Houthi-controlled Yemen capital, Sanaa, between March 26 and 27 killing two people and wounding two others, according to the Al-Masirah TV, which is run by the Houthis.
Despite Trump’s recent claims, the Houthis demonstrated their commitment to the fight against Israel by launching two missiles at targets in the center of the country on March 27. The group also claimed to have targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and other warships of the U.S. Navy in the Red Sea.
All in all, neither Trump or the Houthis will likely back down from the ongoing confrontation. More escalation is to be expected. Israel has so far refrained from resuming strikes against Yemen, reportedly upon a request from Washington. This could change as the Houthis continue to target Israeli territories.
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