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The United States and the Houthi rebels of Yemen have reached a cease-fire agreement, the Omani mediator said on Tuesday. This after President Donald Trump announced the stopping of American strikes against these insurgents.
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06 May 2025 – 21:55
(Keystone-ATS) The announcement of the agreement which should allow freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, intervened a few hours after Israeli air bombings which destroyed the international airport of the Yémenite Sanaa capital and left three dead according to the rebels.
The political leader of the Houthis, Mahdi Al-Mashat, did not comment on Mr. Trump’s announcement but promised in a press release a “lightning” response against Israel, ally of the United States.
“Following discussions and contacts led by the Sultanate of Oman with the United States and the authorities concerned in Sanaa (…) efforts led to a cease-fire agreement between the two parties,” said Omani Foreign Affairs Minister Badr Al-Boussaïdi.
“In the future, neither of the two parties will target the other, including American ships, in the Red Sea and in the Strait of Bab Al-Mandeb”, off Yemen. The ceasefire will “guarantee freedom of navigation and the fluidity of international maritime trade”.
Affirming to act in solidarity with the Palestinians, the Houthis have claimed dozens of missile and drone attacks against Israel since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. They also attacked ships which they consider linked to Israel off Yemen, on an essential seaway for world trade.
In retaliation, the United States, under the chairmanship of Joe Biden, launched raids from rebels in Yemen. These strikes have been intensified since March 15, under the administration of Donald Trump.
“The Houthis announced (…) that they no longer wanted to fight. They just don’t want to fight anymore. And we are going to honor this. We will stop the bombings, and they capitulated, “said Mr. Trump earlier.
“Completely destroyed airport”
“They say they will not explode any ships, and that was our goal,” added Trump, promising a “very, very big announcement” before his trip to the Middle East next week, without specifying its nature.
-In response to a Houthi missile shot on the main international airport in Israel on Sunday, Israel led strikes against Sanaa airport, electric resorts from the region and a cement plant in Amrane (North), said the Al-Massirah rebels chain, reporting three people.
“Three of the seven planes belonging to the national company Yemenia were destroyed at Sanaa airport, and the international airport was completely destroyed,” said an airport manager.
Since 2022, only the Yemeni national company Yemenia has been providing a limited commercial link from Sanaa airport, with Amman as the main destination. The airport also hosts humanitarian flights operated by the UN.
The Houthis had warned that “the assault (Israeli) will not remain unanswered”.
Supported by Iran, a sworn enemy of Israel, the Houthis have been at war against power in Yemen since 2014 and control a large part of this poor country of the Arabian Peninsula located more than 1800 km from Israel.
On Monday, Israel said it had targeted Houthis infrastructure in western Yemen, for the fifth time since July 2024, “in response to the repeated attacks by the Houthi terrorist regime against the State of Israel”.
The Houthis are part, with Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah in particular, of what Iran presents as “the axis of the Resistance” against Israel. Tehran nevertheless denies military aid to the Houthis.
“Directly responsible”
The Israeli Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, accused Iran of being “directly responsible” for the attacks by the Houthi rebels against Israel and warned that he would suffer “all the consequences”.
While almost all of the Houthi shots have been intercepted for more than a year by the Israeli aerial defenses, Sunday a missile struck directly for the first time inside the perimeter of Ben Gerion airport near Tel Aviv.
The Yemeni rebels claimed “a hypersonic ballistic missile shot on Ben Gurion”, which caused a brief interruption of air traffic and a provisional suspension of international flights.
Iran denied having helped the Houthis in the attack and its leader of diplomacy, Abbas Araghchi, accused Israel of wanting to train the United States in a “disaster” in the Middle East.
