President Donald Trump announced from the White House on Tuesday that the US will, "effective immediately," cease bombing Yemen’s Houthis after they said they "just don’t want to fight" anymore.
"We had some very good news last night. The Houthis have announced that they are not — or they have announced to us at least — that they don't want to fight anymore. They just don't want to fight. And we will honor that," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "And we will stop the bombings."
Trump later added, "I will accept their word, and we are going to stop the bombing of the Houthis effective immediately."
In late March, Trump vowed to attack the Houthi terrorists until they are "no longer a threat to freedom of navigation" in the region.
"The Iran-backed Houthi Terrorists have been decimated by the relentless strikes over the past two weeks. Many of their Fighters and Leaders are no longer with us. We hit them every day and night — Harder and harder," Trump wrote. "Their capabilities that threaten Shipping and the Region are rapidly being destroyed. Our attacks will continue until they are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation. The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at US ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran."
Houthi terrorists had been attacking shipping vessels in the Red Sea for over a year, which is a key shipping route to transport goods between eastern Asia and Europe. Without access to the canal, some ships have been forced to travel around the Horn of Africa instead of through the sea and the Suez Canal.
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