{"id":42746,"date":"2025-05-26T16:48:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T21:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=42746"},"modified":"2025-05-26T22:50:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T03:50:25","slug":"the-houthis-held-trump-folded-is-the-us-retreating-from-yemen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=42746","title":{"rendered":"The Houthis held, Trump folded: Is the US retreating from Yemen?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s something rather jarring \u2014 though not entirely unfamiliar \u2014 about a U.S. president lauding the bravery of a force his military has just spent weeks trying to pulverize. But such is the diplomatic theatre of Donald Trump,<\/u><\/a> who earlier this month praised Yemen\u2019s Houthi fighters<\/u><\/a> for their \u201cgreat capacity to withstand punishment\u201d even as he announced an unexpected ceasefire agreement with the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A pact brokered through Omani mediation, the deal appears on its face to pause the dramatic escalation of U.S. military strikes and Houthi maritime assaults in the Red Sea. The big question, however, is whether this ceasefire is anything more than a tactical timeout in a war that now radiates well beyond Yemen\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For nearly a decade, the Houthis have not just survived but entrenched themselves in Yemen\u2019s northern highlands, fending off a combined Saudi-Emirati blitzkrieg backed \u2014 militarily and politically \u2014 by Washington. In this latest chapter, it was Operation Rough Rider, a costly American campaign<\/u><\/a> initiated in mid-March, that aimed to dislodge or at least deter the Iran-backed movement from targeting international shipping and American naval assets. The result? Seven downed U.S. drones<\/u><\/a>, two lost fighter jets, over $1 billion\u2002<\/u><\/a>sunk into the sand \u2014 and no discernible strategic gain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, Trump pulled the plug. Not with the grace of strategic recalibration, but with a bluntness that makes his transactional worldview painfully clear. The Houthis, he declared, had earned a chance. Translation: They withstood the barrage; we\u2019ve run out of options. But this so-called ceasefire is already a study in contradiction. For starters, it notably excludes Israel \u2014 a fact that has not only rattled Tel Aviv but exposed a fissure in the traditional U.S.-Israel axis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Houthis, emboldened by what they frame as a David-versus-Goliath triumph, have vowed to continue their missile and drone campaigns against Israeli targets in \u201csolidarity with Palestine.\u201d Days before the ceasefire, Houthi rockets reached the outskirts of Ben Gurion Airport<\/u><\/a>. Israel\u2019s response \u2014 striking Sanaa International Airport\u2002<\/u><\/a>\u2014 did little to dull the group\u2019s resolve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Israeli vantage point, Trump\u2019s maneuver reeks of betrayal. There was no consultation, no forewarning. In essence, when American interests collide with those of its allies, the latter are dispensable. This should alarm not just Israel but the Arab states as well. Ahead of Trump\u2019s recent Gulf tour \u2014 which included stops in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar \u2014 the Houthis issued a pointed warning: beware of trusting America. Citing Washington\u2019s historical pattern of abandoning its allies, the message was couched in revolutionary rhetoric but steeped in hard-earned realism. As Mohammed Ali al-Houthi posted<\/u><\/a> on X: \u201cAmerica, which abandoned the Shah, will abandon Israel, its clients, and its allies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a message that carries particular resonance in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, both of which have staked considerable resources \u2014 and regional credibility \u2014 on curtailing Houthi influence. The Emirates, despite their long-standing hostility towards the Houthis, were reportedly reluctant to support Washington\u2019s escalation and now find themselves managing an uneasy diplomatic recalibration. Qatar, ever the pragmatist, has welcomed the ceasefire, but its faith in a durable peace seems tentative at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then there\u2019s Iran, whose role in shaping this ceasefire remains underexamined. While Tehran has long been the Houthis\u2019 primary patron, reports now indicate<\/u><\/a> that Iran may have encouraged the group to negotiate rather than escalate further. If true, this suggests a broader strategic calculus: Iran, currently juggling nuclear talks and regional power plays, may have seen value in reducing tensions \u2014 at least temporarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This raises a critical question: Did Tehran greenlight this ceasefire as part of a larger deal-making effort with Washington, or was it simply watching from the sidelines? What remains undeniable is that Iran benefits from keeping the Houthis active, particularly in pressuring Israel and Western-linked maritime trade routes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More broadly, what this ceasefire signals is not so much peace as exhaustion. Trump, ever the salesman of \u201cAmerica First,\u201d appears to have recognized that the returns on military investment in Yemen are nil. The U.S. campaign not only failed to neutralize the Houthis but may have actually amplified their stature \u2014 both regionally and symbolically. From their vantage point, forcing the world\u2019s most powerful military into a truce without conceding on Israel is nothing short of a propaganda coup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, any celebration may be premature. This is not a ceasefire in the classical sense but a \u201ctactical arrangement\u201d \u2014 an ephemeral truce that could collapse at the first provocation. The Houthis have made clear they reserve the right to resume attacks at will. Indeed, they\u2019ve already ramped up strikes against Israel, underlining that their pact with the U.S. is conditional and partial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So where does this leave the Middle East? In flux, as usual. Trump\u2019s decision may temporarily reduce American exposure in the Red Sea, but it has done little to advance a broader regional settlement. It may, in fact, deepen the fragmentation of U.S. alliances. The Arab states \u2014 already hedging between Washington and Beijing \u2014 now have more reason to doubt the reliability of their security patron. Israel, isolated and increasingly embattled, finds its deterrence credibility tested. And the Houthis? They emerge, at least for now, with a narrative of resistance that resonates far beyond Yemen\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In typical Trumpian fashion, the ceasefire is being sold as a triumph of strength. But beneath the bluster lies an uncomfortable truth: it is a retreat cloaked in bravado, a transactional pause in a conflict that is far from over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with so many of Trump\u2019s foreign policy decisions, it is less about peace and more about optics \u2014 more about momentary relief than strategic resolution. Whether this arrangement holds is beside the point. Its very existence has shifted the terrain. And in the volatile calculus of Middle Eastern geopolitics, that alone is a development worth watching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s something rather jarring \u2014 though not entirely unfamiliar \u2014 about a U.S. president lauding the bravery of a force his military has just spent weeks trying to pulverize. But such is the diplomatic theatre of Donald Trump, who earlier this month praised Yemen\u2019s Houthi fighters for their \u201cgreat capacity to withstand punishment\u201d even as he announced an unexpected ceasefire agreement with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":42747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1153],"tags":[25303,1230,2510],"class_list":["post-42746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military","tag-houthis","tag-trump","tag-yemen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42746"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42749,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42746\/revisions\/42749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}