(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) Yemen’s Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, are committed to a ceasefire deal with the US despite the group’s recent attacks on two commercial ships that were carried out as part of its blockade on Israeli-linked shipping, Drop Site News has reported.
“Our military operations remain directed exclusively at Israel. Should the United States reengage in the conflict, any escalation will be met in kind,” Muhammad al-Bukhaiti, a senior Ansar Allah official, told Drop Site.
Since President Trump announced the end of the US bombing campaign in Yemen on May 6, the Houthis have refrained from attacking any US naval ships or commercial vessels. The recent Houthi attacks on two cargo ships were not a violation of the ceasefire deal since they were not American.
A senior US official told The Wall Street Journal last week that as long as the Houthis aren’t shooting at American ships, the ceasefire is still in place. A Pentagon spokeswoman also told the paper that the US hasn’t changed its “force posture” in the region despite a recent statement from the State Department that suggested the US could restart its bombing campaign in Yemen.
While the ceasefire remains in place, Israel is reportedly urging the US to start bombing Yemen again. Ansar Allah officials have vowed that Yemeni operations against Israel won’t stop until there’s an end to the genocidal war and siege on the Gaza Strip.
According to Israel’s Kan broadcaster, Israel told the US that the Houthi attacks “can no longer remain solely an Israeli problem,” and called for “more intense combined attacks against Houthi regime targets — not just [Israeli] air force fighter jet strikes, but also a renewal of American attacks and the formation of a coalition including additional countries.”
President Trump launched airstrikes against Yemen from March 15 to May 6, which involved over 1,000 missile strikes and killed over 250 civilians. The brutal bombing campaign was launched in response to the Houthis announcing they were reimposing a blockade on Israeli shipping in response to Israel violating the Gaza ceasefire by imposing a total blockade on the Palestinian territory.
Throughout the US bombing campaign, the Houthis were able to fire missiles and drones at US warships and launch missiles at Israeli territory. Multiple US MQ-9 Reaper drones were shot down, and the US lost two F/A-18 fighter jets that fell off aircraft carriers during Houthi attacks. While Trump framed his ceasefire with the Houthis as a victory, he essentially gave up on trying to stop the Houthi attacks on Israel.
This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
