Yemen: Strikes to continue vowed Trump

US President Donald Trump vowed that attacks on the Houthis in Yemen will continue until they are no longer a threat to shipping, in what is assumed to be an attempt to save face as the Trump Administration copes after the phone text scandal, according to The Arab Weekly.

President Trump also warns, in the statement, that the Houthis and its Iranian backers have “real pain” to come if action is not made, on 31st March.

Trump said, “The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at US ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran”.

Shortly after Trump’s threat, media representing the Houthis said two US strikes Monday hit the island of Kamaran, off the Hodeidah coast in Yemen.

Houthi-held parts of Yemen have faced near-daily attacks since the US launched a military offensive on March 15 to stop them from threatening vessels in key maritime routes. On the first day alone, US officials said they killed senior Houthi leaders, while the militia’s health ministry said 53 people were killed.

Trump made clear that the Houthis had been “decimated” by “relentless” strikes since March 15, saying that US forces “hit them every day and night, harder and harder.”

Since then, the Houthis have announced the continued targeting of US military ships and Israel.

Trump added, “Our attacks will continue until they are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation”.

The Houthis began targeting shipping after the start of the Gaza war, claiming solidarity with Palestinians.

Trump’s threat comes as his administration battles a scandal over the accidental leaking of a secret text chat by senior security officials on the Yemen strikes.

It also comes amid a sharpening of Trump’s rhetoric toward Tehran, with the president threatening that “there will be bombing” if Iran does not reach a deal on its nuclear programme.

The Atlantic magazine revealed last week that its editor, a well-known US journalist, was accidentally included in a chat on the commercially-available Signal app where top officials were discussing the Yemen air strikes.

The officials, including Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, discussed details of air strike timings and intelligence, unaware that the highly-sensitive information was being simultaneously read by a member of the media. Trump has rejected calls to sack Waltz or Hegseth and branded the scandal a “witch hunt.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, “This case has been closed here at the White House as far as we are concerned”.

The Arab Weekly