Oman on Tuesday announced a cease-fire agreement between the United States and the Pro-Iranian Houthi in Yemen.
The Yemen Houthis and the United States have agreed with a ceasefire, confirmed Omani Foreign Affairs minister Badr Al-Boussaïdi, shortly after Donald Trump announced the end of the American strikes against this group supported by Iran. However, the chief of the Houthis, Mahdi El-Mashat, announced that attacks on Israel will continue.
“Following the recent discussions and contacts led by the Sultanate of Oman with the United States and the authorities concerned in Sanaa (…) The efforts led to a cease-fire agreement between the two parties,” said the Omani minister, specifying that “in the future, neither of the two parties will target the other, including American ships, in the Red Sea and in Bab Al-Mandeb “.
The American State Department said Washington will guarantee the protection of maritime navigation through the Bab El-Mandeb Strait following a new agreement concluded with the Houthi movement.
The special envoy of the United States President Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff, directed negotiations on Iran and worked last week to negotiate a ceasefire with the Houthis, the sources said. They added that the talks were facilitated by the Omanis, who have often played the role of intermediaries between the United States and the pro-Iranian movement.
M.Trump, announced Tuesday to stop strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, saying that this group had agreed to no longer bombing ships sailing on an essential path for world trade.
This announcement occurred a few hours after Israeli air bombings that destroyed the Yemeni capital international airport, Sanaa, and made three killed, according to the group.
“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 have capitulated,” said the American president in the oval office, alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“They say they will not explode any ships, and that was our goal,” said Trump, stressing that the information came from a “very, very good source”.
“No decline”
Later, the head of the Houthis, Mahdi El-Mashat, said in a statement that the agreement with Washington did not concern Israel.
“There will be no perspective in our support for Gaza, regardless of the cost,” he wrote. According to him, the recent events prove that “our strikes are painful and will continue”, allusion to the missile launched against Ben Gurion airport. “Our response to Israeli attacks, with the will of God, will be devastating and unbearable for the Israeli enemy,” he threatened, promising an intensification of the strikes.
Addressing directly to the Israelis, he launched: “From now on, stay in your shelters or immediately return to your countries of origin. Your faulty government will no longer be able to protect you. No attack will make us deviate from our decision to support Gaza until the end of the assault and the lifting of the blockade. ”
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 from January 2024. These strikes have been intensified since March 15, under the administration of Donald Trump.
-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.
Airport completely destroyed
“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 have 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 1,800 km from Israeli territory.
On Monday, Israeli strikes on regions controlled by the Houthis in the west of the country left four dead, according to this group.
Israel said it had targeted Houthi infrastructure 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 this group.
“Directly responsible”
The Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz accused Iran of being “directly responsible” for the attacks of the Houthis 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 group 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.
“The deadly support for the genocide of Netanyahu in Gaza and the war waged in the name of Netanyahu in Yemen brought nothing to the American people,” said Araghchi on X, warning against “any error against Iran”.
