IRAN PRESSED HOUTHIS FOR US TRUCE TO BOOST NUCLEAR TALKS ‘MOMENTUM’: REPORT

Wed 07 May 2025:

Iran urged Yemen’s Houthi rebels to secure a ceasefire with the US regarding Red Sea attacks, aiming to bolster progress in Tehran’s nuclear program negotiations, per reports. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump unexpectedly announced a halt to hostilities with the Houthis,

Announcing the agreement on Tuesday, Trump said the Houthis “don’t want to fight any more”.

“And we will honour that, and we will stop the bombings, and they have capitulated,” he added.

“They say they will not be blowing up ships any more, and that’s… the purpose of what we were doing.”

Oman later revealed it had mediated the ceasefire deal, according to which neither side will target the other, including US vessels in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait.

According to CNN, negotiations between the US and the Houthis were stimulated by remarks from US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who last week posted to X that Iran “will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing” if it continues “lethal support to the Houthis.”

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A US official said the Trump administration did not notify Israel ahead of time of an agreement with the Houthis to halt attacks.

Asked later Tuesday about Houthi pledges to continue attacks against Israel, Trump responded, “I’ll discuss that if something happens.”

“I don’t know about that, but I know one thing: They want nothing to do with us, and they let that be known through all of their surrogates,” the president told reporters.

Two Iranian officials, one from the foreign ministry and the other from the Revolutionary Guards, said that Iran had persuaded the Houthis to stop their attacks on US assets as part of the Omani mediation efforts, The New York Times reported.

CNN cited people familiar with the matter as saying Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff had worked with the Omanis over the past week to broker the US-Houthi ceasefire. The sources said the ceasefire was also meant to help build momentum in the Iran nuclear talks, which Witkoff has also been leading on behalf of the Trump administration.

There have been three rounds of nuclear talks already, though a date for the fourth has not yet been set, though it is likely to take place this weekend.

Oman is mediating the nuclear talks too, and has hosted some of the rounds.

In recent weeks, the Iranians have repeatedly said they have no control over the Houthis.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in March, said that the Houthis, an Iran-aligned group that controls Yemen’s capital Sanaa, act on their own.

Trump at the time had said he would hold Iran responsible for any attacks carried out by the Houthis, as the American military carried out waves of strikes against the group, in the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since he returned to the White House.

Trump, who withdrew the US from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, has signaled confidence in clinching a new pact that blocks Iran’s path to a nuclear bomb, but has threatened to attack if diplomacy fails.

While announcing the truce with the Houthis, Trump, who is set to visit the Middle East this month, also said he had a “very, very, very big announcement to make… like as big as it gets… and it’s really positive.” The president said he would only give details later in the week.