President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that the United States will halt its airstrike campaign “effective immediately” against the Houthis in Yemen after the terror group said they will stop attacking ships.
“They’ve said ‘please don’t bomb us anymore, and we’re not going to attack your ships,’” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Trump added that the terror group “capitulated” and that his administration will “take their word.”
REPORTER: Can you tell us a bit more about the deal that you’ve reached with the Houthis?@POTUS: “They’ve said ‘please don’t bomb us anymore and we’re not going to attack your ships.'”
REPORTER: And where did you hear about that?@POTUS: “A very good source… would you say,… pic.twitter.com/FbSYvAmR6R
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 6, 2025
“They just don’t want to fight anymore,” Trump said. “We will honor that and we will stop the bombings.”
Trump declined to say where he heard the Houthis’ message, but said he was given the news by a “very good source” last night.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi Political Council, said the terror group’s attacks “will not stop regardless of the consequences until the end of the aggression on Gaza and blockade on its people,”Bloomberg News reported.
Al-Bukhaiti reportedly suggested that the Houthis would be willing to stop attacking U.S. military ships if the airstrikes stop, “but we will definitely continue our operations in support to Gaza,” he insisted.
Trump said the purpose of the airstrikes was to stop the terror group, which has attacked more than 100 international cargo ships, tankers, and naval vessels following Hamas’ October 7 assault on Israel. Since March, over 800 Houthi targets have been hit, resulting in the elimination of hundreds of fighters and leaders.
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“They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore and that’s what the purpose of what we were doing,” the president said. “I think that is very positive. They were knocking out a lot of ships sailing beautifully down the various seas. It wasn’t just the [Suez] Canal, it was a lot of other places.”
Trump re-designated the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization upon taking office in January, reversing President Joe Biden’s earlier decision to remove them from the list.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the goal of getting the terrorist group to stop attacking ships was achieved, so the strikes will stop.
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“This was always a freedom of navigation issue,” Rubio said. “These are a band of individuals with advanced weaponry that were threatening global shipping, and the job was to get that to stop — and, if it’s going to stop, then we can stop.”
Earlier on Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike left the main airport in Yemen’s capital, which serves as “a central hub for the Houthi terrorist regime,” fully disabled, according to the Israeli Defense Forces. Flight runways, aircraft, and airport infrastructure were struck in the attack.
The strike was part of a wider two-day attack which also targeted civilian infrastructure that the Houthis have used for terror activity, including the Hudaydah Port, concrete plants, and several central power plants in the Sana’a area.
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The IDF said the strike on Sana’a Airport was a direct response to a missile fired by the Houthis that landed near Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport, injuring six people and temporarily halting flights. The IDF said the missile was not intercepted due to a technical malfunction, noting that its systems typically maintain a 95% success rate against missiles launched from Yemen.
The IDF struck Houthi infrastructure in Yemen on Monday, May 5, including at the Hudaydah Port as well as the “Bajil” Concrete Plant. (IDF)
Following the strike, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that the Iranian will “bear direct responsibility for any attack by the Houthi tentacle against the State of Israel.”
