Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to “defend ourselves alone” against Yemen’s Houthi rebels after US President Donald Trump struck a deal with the Iran-backed group.
The US deal, announced just hours after the Israeli military carried out major strikes against Yemen’s international airport and other facilities in response to a Houthi attack on Israel’s main airport, was a surprise to Israel, which was not informed in advance about the truce, an Israeli official told CNN earlier.
According to Trump, the US would halt an ongoing military campaign against the Houthis in exchange for the group stopping its attacks on US interests in the region.
The Houthis acknowledged the agreement but made it clear their attacks on Israel would continue. Senior Houthi leader Mohammed Ali al-Houthi said after the announcement that the agreement was “a victory that separates US support for the temporary entity (Israel) and a failure for Netanyahu.”
On Wednesday, Netanyahu said, “Israel will defend itself by itself.” In the past, Israel has carried out joint strikes with the US against the Houthis, but two consecutive days of Israeli attacks on Yemen earlier this week were done alone. “If others join us—our American friends—all the better. If they don’t, we will still defend ourselves on our own,” he said in a video posted on social media.
Trump referred to the deal as capitulation from the Houthis on Tuesday but on Wednesday he said they had a “good outcome with the Houthis,” adding they had a “great capacity to withstand punishment” from repeated US strikes.
“You could say there’s a lot of bravery there,” Trump said at a swearing-in of his ambassador to China at the White House. “It was amazing what they took.”
He added that the US would “honor their (Houthis’) commitment” not to attack US warships or commercial vessels in the region.
Trump ‘thinks about America’s interests’
The US-Houthi truce sidelined the Israeli government, according to former US Middle East envoy Dennis Ross.
He noted that Netanyahu was left in the dark when the US began talks with Hamas in March and only found out about US nuclear talks with Iran when Trump made the announcement seated next to the prime minister in the Oval Office last month. The US-Houthi ceasefire is one more instance where Israel’s concerns were a tertiary consideration for the White House, if at all, he said.
Whether Houthi ballistic missile launches against Israel continue remains to be seen, but Ross told CNN that Israel does not appear to have been a major factor in the White House’s thought process.
“The Trump Administration thinks about America’s interests,” said Ross.
There has been no public criticism of the White House decision from Israeli officials. Netanyahu, who once openly criticized the Biden administration’s requests and policies, is one of Trump’s most vocal international supporters. Other members of the government have reserved their judgement as well, instead focusing on Israel’s resolve against the Houthis.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement on Thursday that “Israel must be able to defend itself by itself against any threat and any enemy. This has been true in the face of many past challenges, and it will remain true in the future.”
Trump designated the Houthi group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in the final days of his first term as president. President Joe Biden revoked that designation early in his presidency in 2021, and Trump designated it again in January.
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