Prompts winter weather advisories as cold air moves in Friday night

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

 said Tuesday that he's ordering a halt to nearly two months of U.S. airstrikes on Yemen's Houthis, saying the 

 have indicated that “they don’t want to fight anymore” and have pledged to stop attacking ships along a vital global trade route.

“We’re going to stop the bombing of the Houthis, effective immediately,” Trump said at the start of his Oval Office 

meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney

campaign of airstrikes that began in March

, when Trump promised to use “overwhelming lethal force” after the 

 on Israeli vessels sailing off Yemen in response to Israel's mounting another blockade on the Gaza Strip.

At the time, they described the warning as affecting the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Arabian Sea.

Trump said the Houthis had indicated to U.S. officials that “they don’t want to fight anymore. They just don’t want to fight. And we will honor that, and we will stop the bombings.”

 against the Houthis that it said fully disabled the international airport in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. Israel’s attacks were its 

 on targets in Yemen in retaliation for a Houthi missile strike Sunday on 

A U.S. official said the administration had not notified Israel of the agreement with the Houthis before Trump talked about it publicly.

Israel, according to this official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic talks, was irked by the unexpected news — particularly because the Houthis have continued to launch attacks on Israel proper and other Israeli targets.

Israel does not appear to be covered by the U.S.-Houthi agreement.

Appearing before reporters again later Tuesday, this time for the swearing-in of senior adviser and special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump was asked about the possibility that the Houthis would continue to attack Israel and responded, “I don’t know about that, frankly.”

“But I know one thing, they want nothing to do with us,” Trump said. “And they’ve let that be known through all of their surrogates and very strongly.”

Trump calls ending airstrikes ‘positive’

In his comments during the earlier meeting with Carney, Trump said the Houthis had "capitulated but, more importantly, we will take their word that they say they will not be blowing up ships anymore. And that's what the purpose of what we were doing.”

“I think that's very positive," Trump added. "They were knocking out a lot of ships."

Asked how the Houthis had communicated that they were looking to stop being targeted by U.S. bombs, Trump offered few details, saying only with a chuckle that the information came from a “very good source.”

Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, confirmed that the U.S. bombing campaign was ending, posting on X that discussions involving the U.S. and Oman, as well as negotiators in Yemen, “have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides.”

“In the future, neither side will target the other, including American vessels, in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping,” he wrote, calling the agreement a “welcome outcome.”

In a statement, the Houthis said that its position toward Gaza hadn’t changed and its “initial understanding” with the U.S. would not impact its support for the Palestinians. It wasn’t clear in the statement whether it was on board with the agreement with the U.S.

Costs of U.S. operation against the Houthis

The costs of the U.S. munitions used against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen in daily attacks since March 15 have totaled more than $750 million, another U.S. official said. The Trump administration has dropped more than 2,000 munitions on more than 1,000 targets, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide additional details on the strikes.

The total is only a fraction of the total costs of the operation. It doesn’t account for the costs of operating two aircraft carriers, their accompanying warships or the flight hours of the aircraft.

Houthis destroying seven U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones

, at a cost of more than $30 million apiece, or 

 and tug from the carrier USS Harry S. Truman when it maneuvered to avoid a Houthi missile and the jet fell off the carrier.

Despite Trump’s framing of the deal as a way to reopen the Red Sea to commercial shipping without fear of Houthi attack, “the Houthis have not fired on a commercial ship since December,” Gregory Brew, a senior analyst with the Eurasia Group risk-analysis firm, said on X.

“They are likely, however, to continue shooting at Israel,” Brew noted.

“As to the Houthis continuing to attack Israel - they do so at Iran’s own peril,” Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., 

 against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

From November 2023 until January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and 

. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

The Houthis paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the U.S. launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March.

Those strikes Trump had ordered were similar to ones carried out against the Houthis multiple times by the administration of his predecessor, Democratic President 

The Trump administration actions gained a higher profile in the public consciousness when The Atlantic revealed that Hegseth had 

texted sensitive plans for a military strike

 against the Houthis on a group chat in the messaging app Signal that mistakenly included the magazine’s editor-in-chief.

Trump stood by Hegseth and downplayed the breach as a “glitch.” But national security adviser 

, who created the group chat on Signal, left his post last week and has been 

 by Trump to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Politics and Government News

Homepage

The Associated Press

Author

President Donald Trump says he’s ordering a halt to nearly two months of U.S. airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthis. Trump said Tuesday that the Iran-backed rebels have indicated that “they don’t want to fight anymore” and have pledged to stop attacking ships along a vital maritime corridor.

Trump says the U.S. will stop bombing Yemen's Houthis after rebels say they'll stop targeting ships

Go Deeper.

Like this?