The President of the United States, Donald Trump, threatened to hold Iran responsible for the attacks by the Houthi rebels in Yemen, in an escalation of his government campaign against the government in Tehran.
The republican leader issued the warning of his social media platform Truth Social Monday, signing the post with his name.
“Let no one be fooled!” The hundreds of attacks made by Houthi, gangsters and sinister thugs based in Yemen, who are hated by the Yemeni people, all emanated and created by Iran “, Trump wrote.
“”Any other attack or reprisals of the “Houthis” will be encountered with great strength, and there is no guarantee that this force will stop there. »»
The Houthis led a series of attacks on Israeli ships and other commercial ships of the Red Sea, to protest against the War of Israel in Gaza and its blockade of humanitarian supplies on Palestinian territory.
Experts largely recognize that Iran helps to arm the Houthis, which are considered to be part of an informal “resistance axis” supported by Iran.
While Trump has already prompted Iran to end his support for the Houthis, his Monday remarks report a significant escalation – referring to a potential military action against Iran himself.
“Each blow drawn by the Houthis will be considered, from that moment, as a blow from Iran’s arms and leaders, and Iran will be held responsible, and will undergo the consequences, and these consequences will be disastrous!” Trump wrote in his article.
The comments arrive at a diplomatic delicate era for Trump and his counterparts in Iran.
Trump pushed Iran to denuclearize – although in 2018, during his first mandate at the White House, the president withdrew the United States from the Complete Complete Action Plan (JCPOA), an agreement that would have seen Iran restrict its nuclear ambitions in exchange for the relief of the sanctions.
Earlier this month, Trump sent a letter to the Iranian supreme chief of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warning that the United States could respond “militarily” if a nuclear agreement is not concluded.
But Khamenei rejected Trump’s attempts to negotiate, rejecting him as “intimidation” and stressing the fact that Trump scraped the previous agreement.
Iran has always said that its nuclear program was for civil ends and that it denied having pursued a nuclear weapon.
Simultaneously, Trump strengthened the American attacks against the Houthis, after the armed group warned last week that he would seek to ban Israeli ships from nearby waterways.
“Any Israeli ship trying to violate this ban will be subject to military targeting in the declared operational area,” the Houthis said in a statement.
The rebels reported that the ban was born from a blockade that Israel imposed on Gaza, preventing humanitarian supplies from entering the territory torn by the war since March 2.
Israel, however, is a long-standing ally of the United States, and Trump responded to the threats of the Houthi with one of his own on Saturday.
“Today, I ordered the American army to launch a decisive and powerful military action against Houthi terrorists in Yemen,” wrote Trump over the weekend, inaugurating a period of intense bombardments in Yemen.
From Saturday to Sunday, the United States has carried out around 47 air strikes, hitting seven Yemeni provinces and killing around 53 people. The Yemeni capital of Sanaa, controlled by the Houthis, was one of the affected areas.
By announcing the weekend attacks, Trump also warned Iran of his support for the Houthis.
“In Iran: support for Houthi terrorists must end immediately!” Do not threaten the American people, their president, who received one of the greatest mandates in presidential history, or world shipping ways “, he wrote.
“If you do, beware, because America will keep you fully responsible and we will not be nice about it!”
The Houthis have attacked nearly 100 ships in the region since November 2023, flowing two, and Trump is not the first president to carry out attacks against Houthi targets.
Trump’s predecessor, Democratic President Joe Biden, also ordered several series of attacks against the areas controlled by the Houthi in Yemen.
But Biden and his administration described the attacks designed to disrupt the military capacities of the Houthis, and they categorically denied having sought to intensify violence. “We do not want to see a regional war,” said spokesperson for Pentagon Sabrina Singh in 2024.
Trump, however, rejected Biden’s efforts against Houthis as “pathetically weak”. He and Biden were rival in the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost.
The Houthis, on the other hand, promised to respond to Trump’s attacks. “We are going to face climbing with climbing,” said their chief on Sunday, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.
Already, the group said they had a reprisal strike against an American naval ship.
Colin Clarke – The director of research for the Soufan group, a consulting company – told Al Jazeera that Trump’s increasingly lively rhetoric seems to be contrary to part of his campaign rhetoric.
By taking place for a second term in 2024, Trump undertook to bring peace to the Middle East and to withdraw the United States from foreign wars.
“Listen, Trump constantly spoke of withdrawing from the Middle East. He doesn’t want to get into foreign wars, “said Clarke. “It is therefore interesting that it increases with these kinetic strikes, really as a signal directly to the leadership in Tehran.”
Clarke added that hoves on Houthis could be a method for Trump Strump Iran in nuclear negotiations.
“Trump hopes to attract the attention of Ayatollah with it, and he hopes to use these strikes and potentially more in the coming days and weeks to bring the Iranians closer to the table.”
