Yemen's Ansar Allah (Houthi) militia do not expect Donald Trump to "fulfill his commitment to Arab voters and supporters of Gaza" to stop the conflict there, but say the US would stand to gain economically by doing so.
"America is paying an economic and military price because of its support for the aggression on Gaza and also because of its aggression on Yemen in service of Israel," a Houthi source told Newsweek on Wednesday.
"Because we prevent American ships from crossing the seas adjacent to Yemen in response to the American aggression on our country...this makes the American citizen bear the high prices and all because of the American administration's policy towards our country in service of Israel," the source added.
"The question remains: Will Trump continue with the same policy and will the American aggression against Yemen continue? If it continues, the American economy will suffer more losses," the source warned.
The Houthis began a self-proclaimed partial blockade of the Red and Arabian Seas in November 2023 in response to Israel's ground invasion of Gaza, seizing an Israeli-owned merchant vessel and firing hundreds of drones and missiles at passing commercial ships and US and British warships deployed to the region to try to break through the blockade. The US has so far failed to "degrade" Houthi capabilities to stop the militia, with the group only increasing its capabilities to include the firing of long-range UAVs and missiles toward Israel, and vowing to continue its campaign until aggression against Gaza and Lebanon stops.
Trump, whose administration branded the Houthis a "terrorist organization" in January 2021 on the eve of his departure from the White House, has largely avoided mentioning the Yemeni militia in his 2024 bid for the White House, but did slam the Biden administration this past January over the US-led campaign of airstrikes launched against Yemen.
"So, let me get this straight. We're dropping bombs all over the Middle East, AGAIN (where I defeated ISIS!*) and our Secretary of Defense...is running the war from his laptop in a hospital room," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. "Remember, this is the same gang that 'surrendered' in Afghanistan, where no one was held accountable or FIRED. It was the most embarrassing 'moment' in the history of the United States. Now we have wars in Ukraine, Israel, and Yemen, but no 'war' on our Southern Border. Oh, that makes a lot of sense," Trump wrote at the time.
* A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.