President Donald Trump sent a warning to Iran that it must stop providing aid to the Houthis group after his administration carried out airstrikes in Yemen this week.
“Either way they lose, but this way they lose quickly. Tremendous damage has been inflicted upon the Houthi barbarians, and watch how it will get progressively worse — It’s not even a fair fight, and never will be. They will be completely annihilated.”
Trump did not say what may happen if Tehran continues to supply the Houthis.
Since late 2023, the Houthis, a State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization, have carried out attacks on U.S. military vessels and shipping interests in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The Yemen-based group, which controls wide swaths of the country, has said the attacks are in response to Israel’s military campaign against Hamas, also a designated terrorist organization.
Iran has long denied supporting the Houthis, although Iranian officials have sent warnings to the Trump administration after the U.S. airstrikes in Yemen. U.S. officials have long said that Iran is backing various terrorist groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
On Sunday, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, denied the Iranian regime is involved in any of the Houthi attacks on shipping vessels and “plays no role in setting” policies of groups that it has allied with in the Middle East, according to state-run TV.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, writing on X, urged the United States to halt its airstrikes and said Washington cannot dictate Iran’s foreign policy.
On March 17, a spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry told a state-run outlet Press TV that Tehran would similarly take “decisive action” after the U.S. airstrikes against Houthis in Yemen.
“We will respond decisively to any aggression against Iran’s territorial integrity and its national security and interests. There is no doubt about this,” the official, Esmaeil Baghaei, told the outlet.
After the airstrikes, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News this week that the campaign will continue until the Houthis say “we’ll stop shooting at your ships” and “we’ll stop shooting at your drones.”
“Until then, it will be unrelenting,” he said. “[The U.S. campaign] is about stopping the shooting at assets … in that critical waterway, to reopen freedom of navigation, which is a core national interest of the United States. Iran has been enabling the Houthis for far too long.”
Meanwhile, the Houthis’ leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, said on Yemeni TV this week that his group would retaliate against the United States, saying “we will respond to the American enemy ... via missile attacks” and “by targeting their ships,” according to a translation.
