Updated on May 6, 2025, at 2:13 pm EST
President Trump said on Tuesday that the US will stop bombing Yemen, claiming the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, said they would “not be blowing up ships anymore.”
The president said that the Houthis said “they don’t want to fight anymore” and “we will honor that.”
“We will stop the bombings. They have capitulated… we will take their word that they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that’s the purpose of what we were doing,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of Ansar Allah’s political bureau, said in a statement after Trump’s announcement that the Houthis will stop attacks on US assets in the region if the US stops bombing Yemen but vowed operations against Israel will continue until there’s a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the blockade on the Palestinian territory.
“Our military operations in support of Gaza will not cease until the aggression against Gaza stops and the blockade on its residents is lifted, allowing the entry of food, medicine, and fuel,” al-Bukhaiti said in a post on X.
“As for our attacks on the US, they fall within the context of the right to self-defense. If it halts its attacks on us, we will halt our attacks on it. This position also applies to Britain,” he added.
Al-Bukhaiti made the same offer to the US in an interview with Drop Site News back on April 10.
Mahdi al-Mashat, the head of Ansar Allah’s Supreme Political Council, also vowed attacks on Israel will continue, warning Israelis to “remain in shelters because their government will not be able to protect them.”
Trump said the US would stop bombing Yemen “effective immediately.” A Pentagon official later told CNN that the US military had been given a stand-down order to stop strikes on Yemen on Monday night, although US airstrikes were reported in the country early Tuesday morning Yemen time. Israel also launched heavy airstrikes against the Sanaa International Airport and other targets in the capital.
According to the CNN report, Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, worked over the past week to reach a ceasefire with the Houthis in talks facilitated by Oman.
Oman’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that Muscat was involved in the talks and released a statement on the ceasefire deal. “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,” the ministry said.
The Houthis stopped attacks on Israel and on Red Sea shipping when the short-lived Gaza ceasefire went into effect on January 19. After Israel violated the deal by imposing a total blockade on Gaza, the Houthis announced they would re-impose the blockade on Israeli shipping.
It was in response to that announcement that the Trump administration launched its bombing campaign in Yemen on March 15. Since then, the US has launched over 1,000 strikes on Yemen, killing more than 200 civilians.
