United States President Donald Trump has threatened to hold Iran responsible for any attacks carried out by the Houthi rebels in Yemen, in an escalation of his pressure campaign against the government in Tehran.
The Republican leader issued the warning on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday, signing the post with his name.
“Let nobody be fooled! The hundreds of attacks being made by Houthi, the sinister mobsters and thugs based in Yemen, who are hated by the Yemeni people, all emanate from, and are created by, IRAN,” Trump wrote.
“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.”
The Houthis have led a series of attacks against Israeli vessels and other commercial ships in the Red Sea, in protest against Israel’s war in Gaza and its blockade of humanitarian supplies into the Palestinian territory.
Experts widely acknowledge that Iran helps to arm the Houthis, who are considered part of an informal “axis of resistance” backed by Iran.
While Trump has previously pushed Iran to end its support for the Houthis, his remarks on Monday signal a significant escalation — hinting at potential military action against Iran itself.
“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, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!” Trump wrote in his post.
The comments arrive at a delicate time diplomatically for Trump and his counterparts in Iran.
Trump has been pushing Iran to denuclearise — though in 2018, during his first term in the White House, the president withdrew the US from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a deal that would have seen Iran curtail its nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief.
Earlier this month, Trump sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warning that the US could respond “militarily” if a nuclear deal is not reached.
But Khamenei has rebuffed Trump’s attempts to negotiate, dismissing him as “bullying” and pointing to the fact that Trump scuttled the previous agreement.
Iran has consistently said its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes, and it has denied pursuing a nuclear weapon.
Simultaneously, Trump has heightened US attacks on the Houthis, after the armed group warned last week it would seek to ban Israeli ships from nearby waterways.
“Any Israeli vessel attempting to violate this ban will be subject to military targeting in the declared operational area,” the Houthis said in a statement.
The rebels signalled the ban arose from a blockade Israel has imposed on Gaza, preventing humanitarian supplies from entering the war-torn territory since March 2.
Israel, however, is a longtime ally of the US, and Trump responded to the Houthis’ threats with one of his own on Saturday.
“Today, I have ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen,” Trump wrote over the weekend, ushering in a 24-hour period of intense bombing in Yemen.
From Saturday to Sunday, the US conducted an estimated 47 aerial strikes, hitting seven Yemeni provinces and killing an estimated 53 people. The Yemeni capital of Sanaa, which is controlled by the Houthis, was among the areas affected.
In announcing the weekend attacks, Trump also warned Iran about its backing for the Houthis.
“To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY! Do NOT threaten the American People, their President, who has received one of the largest mandates in Presidential History, or Worldwide shipping lanes,” he wrote.
“If you do, BEWARE, because America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!”
The Houthis have attacked nearly 100 vessels in the region since November 2023, sinking two, and Trump is not the first president to carry out attacks against Houthi targets.
Trump’s predecessor, Democratic President Joe Biden, likewise ordered multiple rounds of attacks on Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen.
But Biden and his administration described the attacks as designed to disrupt the Houthis’ military capabilities, and they adamantly denied seeking to escalate the violence. “We don’t want to see a regional war,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said in 2024.
Trump, however, dismissed Biden’s efforts against the Houthis as “pathetically weak”. He and Biden were rivals in the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost.
The Houthis, meanwhile, have promised to respond to Trump’s attacks. “We will confront escalation with escalation,” their leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, said on Sunday.
Already, the group has claimed to have made a retaliatory strike against a US naval vessel.
On Monday, the US Department of Defence signalled attacks from the Houthis would not be tolerated.
“ If you shoot at American troops, there will be consequences,” spokesperson Sean Parnell said, touting Trump’s “peace through strength” stance. “We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective.”
But Parnell was quick to specify that Trump was not seeking war either, despite the US’s new threats. “This is also not an endless offensive. This is not about regime change in the Middle East. This is about putting American interests first.”
Colin Clarke — the director of research for the Soufan Group, a consultancy firm — told Al Jazeera that Trump’s increasingly heated rhetoric appears to run contrary to some of his campaign-trail rhetoric.
In running for a second term in 2024, Trump pledged to bring peace to the Middle East and withdraw the US from foreign wars.
“ Look, Trump has talked endlessly about withdrawing from the Middle East. He doesn’t want to become entangled in foreign wars,” Clarke said. “So it’s interesting that he’s escalating with these kinetic strikes, really as a signal directly to the leadership in Tehran.”
Clarke added that the strikes on the Houthis may be method for Trump to force Iran into nuclear negotiations.
“Trump does hope to get the Ayatollah’s attention with this, and he does hope to use these strikes and potentially more in the coming days and weeks to push the Iranians closer to the table.”
