(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) The New York Times reported on Sunday night that President Donald Trump had ordered the Pentagon to prepare for strikes against Yemen’s Ansar Allah, commonly known as the Houthis, but then reversed his plan, calling off the attack, at least for now.
Sources told the Times that Trump gave the order to prepare for military action in Yemen after a call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been asking for the US to launch airstrikes in the face of Ansar Allah’s rapid gains on the ground.
The report said that the president’s order to delay the strikes came after commanders picked targets and planes were loaded with bombs. It said that most of “the president’s inner circle was either deeply skeptical or outright opposed to joining the Saudi fight against the Houthis, especially given the existing strains facing the US military in the war with Iran.”
While the US isn’t directly launching attacks against Ansar Allah, it’s still deeply involved in the war, as it’s providing targeting and intelligence support for Saudi Arabia, where up to 200 US military advisors are deployed to assist in the bombing campaign.
Any direct US strikes would end a US-Ansar Allah ceasefire reached in May 2025 after Trump conducted a brutal bombing campaign in Yemen that lasted about a month and a half and killed over 200 civilians but failed to end the Ansar Allah blockade on Israeli shipping, which the group re-imposed due to Israel ending the January 2025 Gaza ceasefire deal.
Trump has signaled that the ceasefire remains in effect, telling Fox News reporter Trey Yingst on Sunday that the US “is in constant communication with the Houthis and that they have agreed not to fight the United States.” Reuters reported last week that US and Ansar Allah officials held talks at the US Embassy in Muscat, Oman.
If the US does bomb Yemen, it would be met with escalation from Ansar Allah and could lead to the full closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, a step that would exacerbate the global fuel and economic crisis caused by the US war against Iran.
Ansar Allah’s blockade currently applies only to Saudi shipping and was imposed following the July 13 Saudi airstrikes on the Sanaa International Airport, which reignited the war in Yemen.
This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
