US-Ansaraalh ceasefire deal does not include Israel, says spokesperson
President Donald Trump announced yesterday the US would stop bombing Yemen, saying that the Ansarallah had agreed to stop attacking US ships.
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After Trump made the announcement, Oman said it had mediated the ceasefire deal to halt attacks on American vessels.
There have been no reports of Ansarallah attacks on shipping in the Red Sea area since January.
“The agreement does not include Israel in any way, shape or form,” Mohammed Abdulsalam, the chief Ansarallah negotiator, told Reuters.
“As long as they announced the cessation [of US strikes] and they are actually committed to that, our position was self-defense so we will stop.”
While tensions may have eased between the United States and the Ansarallah, a resilient force that withstood years of heavy Saudi-led bombing in Yemen’s civil war, the agreement does not rule out attacks on any other Israel-linked vessels or targets.
The US intensified strikes on Yemen this year, in support of Israel and to stop attacks on Red Sea shipping. Rights activists have raised concerns over civilian casualties.
“They said ‘please don’t bomb us any more and we’re not going to attack your ships’,” Trump said of the Ansaralah during an Oval Office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. “And I will accept their word, and we are going to stop the bombing of the Houthis effective immediately.”
The Ansarallah have been firing at Israel and at Israel linked vessels in the Red Sea since Israel began its military offensive on Gaza in October 2023.
The US military has said it has struck more than 1,000 targets since its current operation in Yemen, known as Operation Rough Rider, started on 15 March. The strikes, dozens of civilians have been killed in the strikes.
On 28 April, a US air strike hit a migrant center in Yemen, and Ansarallah TV says 68 people were killed.
