Trump says Houthis to halt attacks on commercial vessels, prompting US to stop strikes

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Yemen’s Houthi rebels have informed the White House they will not be carrying out additional attacks on commercial ships, saying the US will reciprocate by halting attacks on Yemen.

"We will take their word. They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that's what the purpose of what we were doing," Trump told reporters as he hosted Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the White House. "We will honor that and we will stop the bombings."

The Houthis have targeted ships passing through the Red and Arabian seas, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden since November 2023 in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip where more than 52,600 people have been killed, most of them women and children, during the course of Israel’s indiscriminate war.

The group halted attacks when a Gaza ceasefire was declared in January between Israel and Hamas, but resumed them after Israel's renewed airstrikes on Gaza in March.