WASHINGTON — Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement promised US officials that it would only attack Saudi Arabian ships and otherwise allow commercial traffic in the Red Sea during a secret summit in Oman over the weekend, according to reports.
The rebel group made a lightning advance down the country’s western coast over the past week, seizing important towns and offshore islands on the Bab al-Mandab Strait from Saudi-aligned fighters — while bombing a key east-west oil pipeline inside Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis and the Trump administration have had a truce, brokered by Oman, since last May and the group agreed to maintain the status quo during discussions in Muscat, the Times of Israel first reported Wednesday.
Global oil prices spiked during the Houthi advance as fears grew that the crucial approach to the Suez Canal would, like the Strait of Hormuz, be largely closed to international traffic.
The promise not to interfere in non-Saudi shipping could explain why the US has not directly engaged to turn back the Houthis after long supporting Riyadh’s attempt to reimpose the internationally recognized government that was driven from the capital Sanaa in 2014.
The Trump administration designated the Houthis as a terrorist group last March, but so far the Shiite movement has not directly backed up ally Iran against the US, sticking to the Omani truce.
Yemen has been in a regional tug-of-war since longtime US-allied dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh was toppled in the Arab Spring protests of 2012, facilitating the rise of the Houthis.
The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council last December seized control of most of the territory of the historical South Yemen, aiming to secede and restore the Aden-based country that merged with the more populous north in 1990.
A Saudi offensive quickly vanquished the southern separatists and prompted the UAE to withdraw its forces from the anti-Houthi coalition.
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