President Donald Trump demanded Iran stop aiding the Yemen-based Houthi group so that it will "lose" its conflict against the United States more "quickly."
The U.S. military began a new offensive campaign against the Houthis, one of Iran's proxies in the Middle East, earlier this week, conducting dozens of strikes on personnel, infrastructure, and weapons stockpiles throughout western Yemen. The Houthis have launched retaliatory drones and missiles targeting U.S. forces in the region, but these attacks have been thwarted.
"Reports are coming in that while Iran has lessened its intensity on Military Equipment and General Support to the Houthis, they are still sending large levels of Supplies," the president said on Wednesday. "Iran must stop the sending of these Supplies IMMEDIATELY. Let the Houthis fight it out themselves. Either way they lose, but this way they lose quickly."
Trump also said the U.S. has inflicted "tremendous damage" on the Houthis, adding that "it will get progressively worse — It’s not even a fair fight, and never will be. They will be completely annihilated!"
Trump has warned in recent days that retaliatory attacks from the Houthis targeting U.S. troops would be attributed to Iran, as well.
"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!" the president said on Monday.
The Houthis have effectively shut down the shipping routes in the Red Sea, with more than a hundred attacks since October 2023 targeting commercial vessels transiting the waterways around Yemen. The U.S. and the United Kingdom had carried out multiple iterations of airstrikes last year but did not destroy the Houthi's arsenal or stop it from carrying out additional attacks.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WARNS IRAN OVER PROXIES' CONTINUED BEHAVIOR
The group claimed its attacks were in solidarity with Palestinians over the Israel-Hamas conflict. However, it indiscriminately attacked ships regardless of ties to Israel, and the Houthis also sporadically fired missiles at Israel.
The Trump administration has sought to implement a "maximum pressure" campaign against Tehran and is looking to start negotiations on its nuclear program.
