Houthis Offer Reciprocal Truce With US: 'Not At War With The American People'

A top Houthi official has offered Washington a truce in the Red Sea, if the US stops attacking Yemen. The Shia group and ally of Iran has made clear that it is not at war with the American people.

Still, the group known formally as Ansarallah has declared this week that the US has "failed" in its bombing operations which were renewed on March 15. Leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, declared Thursday that the "US failed to prevent military operations and secure maritime navigation for the Israeli enemy" as we detailed previously.

But the Houthis are apparently holding out the possibility that the conflict with US naval and aerial forces can cease. This week a senior leader of Ansarallah told Drop Site News in a rare interview, "We do not consider ourselves at war with the American people. If the U.S. stops targeting Yemen, we will cease our military operations against it."

The top official, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of Ansarallah’s political bureau and a longtime spokesperson for the Houthis, described further in reference to Israeli action in Gaza, "When the Zionist entity stops its genocidal crimes in Gaza and allows food, medicine, and fuel to enter, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement, we will cease all military operations against it."

"We only defended ourselves. There are also crimes of genocide in Gaza and a siege aimed at starvation. All nations should act to support the oppressed and the weak, as emphasized by international conventions and international human rights law," al-Bukhaiti added.

He went on to describe that while the Houthis are ready to halt all counter-attacks on US warships and vessels, the attacks on Israeli ships and Israeli territory won't stop until certain Gaza-related conditions are met.

"Operations against the Zionist entity will continue until our objectives are achieved," al-Bukhaiti said. "If Trump truly seeks peace, as he claims, his efforts should have been directed at pressuring Netanyahu to implement the ceasefire agreement, which includes lifting the siege on Gaza and allowing food and medicine to enter. Only then will we stop all military operations against the Zionist entity."

Last month the Trump administration appeared to approve of renewed Israeli military operations against Hamas, and the collapse of the ceasefire.

But interestingly, there could be basis of agreement or some kind of de facto truce at least between American and Houthi forces, given the prior statement from President Trump:

"The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at U.S. ships, and we will stop shooting at you," Trump wrote in a post on TruthSocial on March 31. "Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also recently echoed the same in an interview with Fox News: "The minute the Houthis say, 'We'll stop shooting at your ships, we'll stop shooting at your drones,' this campaign will end. But until then, it will be unrelenting."

However, Washington is still likely to come to the defense of its number one regional ally Israel. Yet Trump could be looking for an off-ramp as the Yemen war looks to become more and more unpopular on a political level at home. After all, he did present himself on the campaign trail as the 'peace president'.