For anyone who has wondered what an America First foreign policy looks like, Donald Trump provided a vivid example today when he declared a cease-fire with the Houthis, the Yemeni militia that has been under U.S. bombardment for the past seven weeks.
The Houthis have “capitulated” and agreed to no longer target American ships, Trump said, interrupting a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney with an impromptu announcement that appeared to take some of his own team by surprise. In exchange, the United States will cease its aerial war on the Houthis, the president said.
In other words, the U.S. has extracted itself from the conflict but not ended it. There is no sign that the Houthis will end their war with Israel. They struck near Israel’s main airport with a missile on Sunday, setting off a round of violence in which Israel bombarded sites across Yemen today, leaving the country’s main airport in flames. The Houthis issued a defiant bulletin saying that the Israeli attacks “will not pass without a response” and that the Houthi government “will not abandon its position regarding Gaza.”
Some analysts even questioned whether the American truce would apply to Britain and other Western allies whose ships have been struck by the Houthis. If not, it would take the meaning of America First to new heights, and the transatlantic relationship to new lows. In the now-notorious Signal chat among top Trump officials in March, Vice President J. D. Vance said that he was reluctant to launch a war in Yemen if it meant doing a favor for America’s European allies, whose ships have also been attacked by the Houthis.
But the statement issued by the foreign minister of Oman, Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi, whose country was involved in the talks that led to the deal, seemed to suggest that the truce would cover other Western countries: It will ensure the “smooth flow of international commercial shipping,” the statement said.
The agreement is a welcome reprieve for the Trump administration, whose war against the Houthis was threatening to become something of a quagmire. Although recent American strikes did some damage to the Yemeni group, they fell far short of Trump’s goal to “completely annihilate” the militia. The Houthis will remain a potent menace to the entire Gulf region, having proved over the past 18 months that they can disrupt international shipping at will.
The Houthis have not made any official statements about the truce, and some analysts are wondering how the leaders of an Islamist group rooted in hatred of America and Israel will justify dealing with an American administration that does not even pretend to be restraining Israel’s war in Gaza.
“If you’re a Houthi, this is the last moment you’d make a deal like this, with Gaza still in flames and much of Yemen under Israeli attack,” Bernard Haykel, a professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, told me.
One explanation for the timing may be that the Trump administration and the Iranians are circling a new deal to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Iran has been the Houthis’ main military sponsor and patron, and it has substantial influence over them. Perhaps Tehran intended to present the cease-fire as a goodwill gesture in the nuclear talks, Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemen analyst and the founder of the Basha Report, suggested to me. Trump’s envoy Steven Witkoff is leading the Iran talks, and he was quick to repost on X the Omani foreign minister’s announcement of the Houthi deal this afternoon.
Trump’s announcement could also be connected to his upcoming trip to the Gulf, where he will meet with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. The Saudis have been urging the Iranian regime to strike a nuclear accord with the United States and even sent their defense minister to meet with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, last month.
Trump mentioned his upcoming trip during the Oval Office meeting with Carney today and added that before his departure, he will have a “very, very big announcement to make.” If that announcement turns out to be a new deal to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions, maybe the Houthis will have had something to do with it.
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