Trump: Hamas, the Houthis, Iran, will see a price to pay!

Washington – WH

The Trump administration issued clear warnings to Iran that it would be held responsible for continued attacks by its proxies against U.S. interests in the Middle East.

Over the last several days, the Pentagon has conducted dozens of airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, while the administration is also simultaneously backing Israel’s renewed military operations in Gaza.

“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!” President Donald Trump said Monday.

The U.S. military has carried out airstrikes in Yemen for multiple days now, while Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned the campaign would be “unrelenting” until the Houthis commit to ending attacks on vessels transiting off Yemen’s coasts.

“The message is clear to Iran … Your support of the Houthis needs to end immediately. We will hold you accountable as the sponsor of this proxy, and I echo [the president’s] statement [that] we will not be nice about it,” Hegseth said.

The group has carried out more than 100 attacks on commercial vessels transiting the waterways off Yemen’s coasts dating back to around the start of the Israel-Hamas war. This has severely reduced the number of commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea and forced companies to instead divert their ships on a much longer and more expensive route around the southern tip of the African continent.

The U.S. military carried out several iterations of strikes against the Houthis since its attacks began in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack in Israel that destabilized the region. However, Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, joint staff director for operations, told reporters Monday that the current operation includes “a much broader set of targets.”

Retired Gen. Joseph Votel, who served as commander of U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for the Middle East area, said the administration’s “public narrative about holding Iran responsible” is a “subtle change in the messaging” that “takes us from a defensive posture to more of an offensive posture.”

“I think that is absolutely critical to this,” he said Tuesday during an event with the Middle East Institute. “There has been some reluctance, I think, in the past, to do that, but that reluctance seems to have abated here over the weekend, and seems to be very clear that the President is very, very clearly sending a message to Iran with this, and intends to hold them accountable.”

The Houthis are based in Yemen, and the Trump administration redesignated the group as a foreign terrorist organization upon the president’s return to office.

Despite the Trump administration’s messaging, Houthi Foreign Minister Jamal Amer told Reuters on Monday that the group would not “dial down” its actions. Two senior Iranian officials told the outlet that Tehran delivered a verbal message to him to cool tensions.

“There will be no talk of any dialing down of operations before ending the aid blockade in Gaza. Iran is not interfering in our decision, but what is happening is that it mediates sometimes, but it cannot dictate things,” Amer said, adding his own warning that “escalation is likely.”

The Houthis fired drones and missiles at the USS Harry Truman in retaliation for the strikes, but Grynkewich said, “They missed by over 100 miles,” while Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell added, “Those attacks were largely ineffective and didn’t come anywhere near US forces in the region.”

At the same time the military is hitting the Houthis, the United States is supporting Israel’s decision to resume military operations against Hamas in Gaza after negotiations for the release of additional hostages and a long-term governance plan stalled.

“The blame for the resumption of hostilities lies solely with Hamas. This brutal terrorist organization has steadfastly refused every proposal and deadline they’ve been presented over the past few weeks,” Dorothy Shea, acting U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said during a Tuesday U.N. Security Council briefing.

Similarly, as the Israeli strikes commenced, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated the president’s sentiment, saying on Fox News, “As President Trump has made it clear — Hamas, the Houthis, Iran, all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel, but also the United States of America, will see a price to pay. All hell will break loose.”

At the same time, the president is seeking to negotiate with Tehran regarding its nuclear program.

Source : Washington Examiner