The Houthis told the U.S. that they would stop attacks on American warships in the Red Sea, prompting a potential ceasefire, President Donald Trump said during a Tuesday Oval Office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“They just don’t want to fight, and we will honor that, and we will stop the bombings, and they have capitulated. But more importantly, we will take their word they say they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that’s what the purpose of what we were doing,” Trump said during the meeting.
Trump also said that he would have a “very big announcement” before his trip to the Middle East, but the president did not go into more details.
A defense official told CNN that the U.S. military was told to stand down strikes against the Houthis on Monday night. Both the Harry S. Truman and the Carl Vinson carrier strike groups are among Central Command assets in the region. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered a one-week extension for the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group late last week, defense officials confirmed to USNI News.
Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi wrote on social media site X that Oman facilitated the talks between the U.S. and the Houthis.
Under the ceasefire, the Houthis will not target the U.S., including American “vessels” in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, Alusaidi said on X.
Houthi leaders have expressed some skepticism of Trump’s claims on social media site X. Salim Al-Moghales, who is a member of the Houthis Politburo, called Trump’s announcement surprising.
“We said yesterday that there was a quiet decline in the enemy’s rhetoric after the blessed missile attack on [the Ben Gurion Airport], and today Trump announced in a surprising manner that he would stop the American bombing of Yemen immediately and that there would a positive announcement,” Al-Moghales wrote on X, according to a Google translation. “We affirm that we will not abandon Gaza and will continue until the aggression against it stops.”
Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a member of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, posted on X saying that the Houthis will evaluate the cessation of “US aggression.”
“It is a victory that separates American support for the temporary entity from a failure for Netanyahu, and he must resign,” reads his post.
Other Houthi leaders are saying Trump’s announcement signals a defeat, Mohammed Albasha, a Yemen expert who writes the risk analysis Basha Report, wrote on X.
“The tone from Houthi leadership suggests that, regardless of Washington’s signals, their campaign tied to the Gaza conflict will persist unless a full ceasefire is achieved,” Albasha wrote.
It’s possible that the Houthis will stop targeting American warships if the U.S. stops striking Houthi sites in Yemen, Albasha said in a different tweet. However, the Houthis will likely continue targeting Israeli infrastructure until a ceasefire is reached between Israel and Hamas.
U.S. Central Command referred USNI News to the White House for further questions.
Nadwa Al-Dawsari told USNI News that the most likely scenario is that Iran told the Houthis to stop following threats from Trump and Hegseth. While the Houthis might stop attacking ships, they will likely “regroup and recalibrate,” she said.
“All that pressure on Tehran paid off, but for how long?” Al-Dawsari said on X. “Iran and the Houthis just need to weather the storm, restock weapons, deepen ties with Al Qaeda, expand influence in East Africa and prepare for the next round.”
If a ceasefire went into effect between the Yemen-based Houthis and the U.S., it would end nearly two months of daily strikes. CENTCOM announced last week that in 45 days, the U.S. struck 1,000 targets as part of Operation Rough Rider, which began March 15.
From the beginning, the Department of Defense said the strikes would end when the Houthis stop attacking ships in the Red Sea. However, before the start of Rough Rider, the Houthis had not struck a ship in the Red Sea in 2025 and announced they would stop as a result of the former ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Since the U.S. started strikes on the Houthis, the Houthis have attacked American warships. The British, who have conducted joint strikes with the U.S. on the Houthis since the group began attacking commercial shipping, have also launched their own strikes.
