Yemen Monitor/Sana’a/Exclusive:
A Houthi official said on Wednesday that his group is allowing ships to reach Israeli ports, and that the ban only targets “Israeli ships.”
“Waterways are safe for all international ships except Israeli ones,” Abdul Malik al-Ajri, a member of the Houthis’ political bureau, told AFP.
“Israel is not part of the agreement, it only includes US ships and other ships,” he said.
Al-Ajri added that the Houthis will now attack “only” Israeli ships. In the past, ships visiting Israel, or those with weak Israeli links, were within the group’s firing range. This means lifting the ban imposed by the Houthis on the port of Umm al-Rashrash “Eilat” in the Gulf of Aqaba.
The Houthis, who have controlled the capital Sana’a and other governorates for more than a decade, began firing on Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in November 2023, weeks after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
They expanded their campaign to target US and British-linked ships after the two countries began military strikes in January 2024.
On Wednesday, the Houthi military spokesman said their forces had launched two attacks, targeting Ramon Airport in southern Israel with two drones and a “vital target of the Zionist enemy” in the Tel Aviv area “using a Yafa-type drone.”
Earlier, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei welcomed the cessation of US aggression against the country, praising the Houthis for their “legendary resistance.”
A statement from the Saudi Foreign Ministry said that Saudi Arabia also praised the agreement, as did the United Nations, which called for “restraint and de-escalation in and around Yemen.”
Airport Strike
The agreement between the US and the Houthis was announced after deadly Israeli strikes on Tuesday shut down Sana’a airport in retaliation for a Houthi missile strike on Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.
Khaled al-Shayef, the director of Sana’a airport, told the Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah TV that the Israeli attack destroyed terminal buildings and caused $500 million in damage.
Oman said it had facilitated an agreement between Washington and the Houthis that “neither side will target the other… guaranteeing freedom of navigation.”
US President Donald Trump, who will visit Gulf states next week, hailed the agreement, saying the Houthis had “surrendered.”
The ceasefire came after weeks of intensive US strikes aimed at deterring Houthi attacks on ships. The US attacks left 300 dead, according to an AFP tally of Houthi figures.
The Pentagon said last week that US strikes had hit more than a thousand targets in Yemen since mid-March in an operation dubbed “Roughrider.”
Al-Ajri said recent US-Iranian talks in Muscat “provided an opportunity” for indirect contacts between Sana’a and Washington, leading to the ceasefire.
“US is the one who started the aggression against us,” he added.
Dozens of missile and drone attacks by the Houthis have led to a significant drop in the volume of goods on the Red Sea route, which usually carries about 12 percent of global maritime trade.
