US agrees ceasefire with Houthis in Yemen

The halt – announced by the US president, Donald Trump, during an Oval Office meeting with Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, came on a day in which Israel claimed its jets had fully disabled Yemen’s main airport, including three civilian aircraft on the ground, in retaliation for a missile strike on Sunday that hit within the perimeter of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport.

“The Houthis have announced … that they don’t want to fight any more. They just don’t want to fight. And we will honour that, and we will stop the bombings, and they have capitulated,” Trump said. He provided minimal details of the agreement and denied that he had struck a deal.

We just found out about that. So I think that’s very, very positive … I will accept their word, and we are going to stop the bombing … effective immediately,” he said.

Oman, which has been mediating contacts between the US and the Houthis, confirmed the deal, which it said would ensure “freedom of navigation” in the Red Sea.

Oman’s foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi, said in an online statement: “Following recent discussions and contacts ... with the aim of de-escalation, efforts have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides.”

He added: “Neither side will target the other ... ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping” in the Red Sea.

There was no official comment from the Houthis, but the rebels’ political leader, Mahdi al-Mashat, said attacks against Israel would continue.

The Houthi response would go “beyond what the Israeli enemy can withstand”, Mashat said in a statement.

The agreement with the US follows a recent sharp intensification of air raids on Yemen, including with the participation of UK forces last week. Some of those strikes claimed civilian lives as well as those of Houthi fighters.

The Houthis have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea since Israel began its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza after the Palestinian militant group’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

The Trump administration launched its operation in mid March, markedly increasing the number of air raids against Yemen, after a campaign of intermittent strikes.