Assessing the U.S. Military Response to the Houthis: Implications for Yemen and Red Sea Security

On May 6, President Donald J. Trump announced that the United States would stop bombing the Houthis in Yemen, saying that the Iran-aligned group had agreed to stop attacking U.S. ships, including commercial vessels. This marked a major shift in U.S. Houthi policy since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023. Under the agreement, neither the United States nor the Houthis would target the other, including U.S. vessels in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb strait.   

With the announcement of the agreement, did the U.S. campaign achieve its stated goals? How did the Houthis come to accept it? Where does this agreement fit in the wider U.S. policy in the region and negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program? Did the U.S. campaign weaken the Houthis internally? And how did the Houthis explain the agreement to the Yemeni public?  

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