Trump ramps up pressure on Iran with fresh Houthi threats

Nick Wadhams and Iain Marlow, Bloomberg News on Mar 17, 2025

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ratcheted up pressure on Iran to rein in the Houthis, raising the possibility of retaliatory strikes against the Islamic Republic if the militant group in Yemen doesn’t stop its attacks.

“Any further attack or retaliation by the ‘Houthis’ will be met with great force, and there is no guarantee that that force will stop there,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible.”

Trump wrote the post after ordering a fresh round of strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis over the weekend for persistent attacks that disrupt commercial traffic through the Red Sea. The Houthi health ministry said 53 people were killed and 98 wounded in strikes on the capital, Sana’a, and other provinces.

The Houthis have survived years of bombardment including by Saudi Arabia, whose intervention in Yemen’s civil war failed to dislodge the group. In an appearance on ABC on Sunday, White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said Iranian targets in and around Yemen — including ships near the coast that provide intelligence and trainers — “will be on the table, too.”

Successive U.S. administrations have accused Iran of supplying training, expertise and weapons to the Houthis, and former President Joe Biden ordered a series of strikes on the group after it began targeting ships in the Red Sea.

“Although the U.S. has been striking at Houthi targets for over a year, the scope and scale of this new campaign, including the targeting of senior Houthi figures, marks a significant escalation in the conflict,” Eurasia analysts Firas Maksad and Gregory Brew said in a note to clients.

On Saturday, Trump said he ordered “decisive and powerful” action against the Houthis. In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said they had “choked off shipping in one of the most important Waterways of the World, grinding vast swaths of Global Commerce to a halt.”

On Sunday, the Yemeni Armed Forces said it retaliated by launching missile and drone attacks against the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier twice in 24 hours. The statement couldn’t be immediately verified.

The Yemeni statement followed a promise by the Houthis’ ruling political council to counter U.S. “aggression,” saying its operations would continue until Israel ended a ban on aid entering Gaza.

Israel stopped aid supplies entering the Palestinian territory about a week ago, saying the move was necessary to pressure Hamas, another Iran-backed militant group, and get it to release more hostages. The Houthis began their maritime attacks in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in late 2023, ostensibly in support of the Palestinians after the Israel-Hamas war erupted in Gaza.

The attacks rattled shipping markets and pushed up freight rates for vessels traveling between Asia and Europe.