Trump vows to hold Iran responsible for Houthi attacks

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would hold Iran responsible for any attacks carried out by the Houthi group that it backs in Yemen, as his administration expanded the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since he returned to the White House, Reuters has reported.

Responding to the Houthi movement’s threats to international shipping in what it claims is solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, the US launched a new wave of air strikes on Saturday. Yesterday, the Red Sea port city of Hudaydah and Al Jawf governorate north of the capital Sanaa were targeted, said Houthi-run Al Masirah TV.

“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!” Trump said on his so-called Truth Social platform.

According to the White House, Trump’s message to Iran was to take the United States seriously.

The Pentagon said that it had struck over 30 sites so far and would use overwhelming lethal force against the Houthis until the group stopped attacks. The Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said that the goal was not regime change.

Lieutenant General Alex Grynkewich, director of operations at the Joint Staff, said that the latest campaign against the Houthis was different to the one under former President Joe Biden because the range of targets was broader and included senior Houthi drone experts. He pointed out that dozens of Houthi members were killed in the strike. The Biden administration is not believed to have targeted senior Houthi leaders.

The Houthi-run health ministry said on Sunday that at least 53 people have been killed — including five children and two women — in the attacks, with 98 people wounded. Reuters could not independently verify the casualty figures.

The Houthis have launched scores of attacks on Israel-linked ships off the Yemen coast since November 2023, disrupting global commerce.

One US official told Reuters that the strikes might continue for weeks. Washington has also ramped up sanctions pressure on Iran while trying to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme.

An official from the UAE last week passed on a letter from Trump to the Iranian leadership. He apparently proposes nuclear talks with Tehran, a proposal that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected as “deception” by Washington.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday that Tehran would respond to the letter “after full scrutiny” of it.

Houthi leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said on Sunday that the group will target US ships in the Red Sea as long as the US continues to attack Yemen. It is under his direction that the movement has become an army of tens of thousands of fighters and acquired an arsenal of armed drones and ballistic missiles. Saudi Arabia and the West say that the arms come from Iran. Tehran denies this, but still champions the Houthis. Nevertheless, the Houthis deny being puppets of Tehran, and experts on Yemen say that they are motivated primarily by a domestic agenda.

The Houthis’ military spokesman, without providing evidence, said in a televised statement early on Monday that the group had launched a second attack against the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea.

The Houthis said last week that they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea if Israel did not lift its block on aid entering Gaza. Israel’s suspension of goods entering Gaza for 16 days has increased pressure on the enclave’s 2.3 million Palestinians, most of whom have been made homeless by the genocidal war against them. The blocking of humanitarian aid is said to be aimed at putting pressure on Hamas to accept new terms being imposed by Israel to release Israeli captives without any concessions from the occupation state. The Israeli move has been described as the “weaponisation” of aid.

OPINION: Israel not only weaponises humanitarian aid, but also criminalises those who deliver it