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Trump says U.S. will stop bombing campaign on Houthis ‘effective immediately’

The president said the terror group had agreed to stop its attacks on international shipping lanes

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office at the White House on May 6, 2025 in Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he had called off the U.S. bombing campaign against Houthi targets in Yemen after the terrorist group told the Trump administration this week that “they don’t want to fight anymore.”

Trump made the comments, which he described as “very good news,” while speaking to reporters from the Oval Office ahead of a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. 

“The Houthis have announced that they are not, or they’ve announced to us at least, 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,” Trump said. “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.”

The president added that his team had “just found out” about the developments, which he called “very, very positive.”

Israel conducted intensive strikes against the Houthis on Monday and Tuesday after the terror group struck Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport complex over the weekend, injuring six.

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi Political Council, told Bloomberg News that the group may stop attacking U.S. ships if the bombardment stops “but we will definitely continue our operations in support to Gaza” and that Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and against Israel “will not stop regardless of the consequences until the end of the aggression on Gaza and blockade on its people.”

The foreign minister of Oman, Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, said in a statement that “recent discussions and contacts conducted by the Sultanate of Oman with the United States and the relevant authorities in Sana’a … 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.”

Trump told reporters, “They were not going to have a lot of ships going, as you know, sailing beautifully down the various seas. It wasn’t just the canal, it was out of other places. And I will accept their word, and we are going to stop the bombing of the Houthis effective immediately,” later adding in response to a question about the news, “They don’t want to be bombed anymore. I sort of thought that would happen.”

Trump then turned to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss the change in strategy, who stated, “This was always a freedom of navigation issue. These guys 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. And so I think it’s an important development.”

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