Yemen17 September, 20263 min read
US Officials Meet Houthi Leaders in Muscat, Oman, as Houthis Reaffirm 2025 Ceasefire
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
US officials met Houthi leaders in Muscat, Oman, brokered by Oman. US opted not to intervene to back Saudi Arabia against Houthi advances.
Muscat talks and Yemen
US officials met Houthi leaders over the weekend at the US embassy in Muscat, Oman, and the Houthis reassured the US that the ceasefire agreement between the two sides struck in 2025 still held. The Guardian said the meeting helps explain Donald Trump’s decision to condemn the Houthi advance down the west coast of Yemen for threatening freedom of navigation through the Bab al-Mandab strait, while rejecting any military response in support of Riyadh.
The deep dive reported Reuters’ account that the sit-down was brokered by Oman and that Houthi representatives assured US officials they wouldn’t go after American ships, citing their ongoing commitment to the 2025 ceasefire. In the same Reuters account, a source said the Houthis drew a similar line around Israeli and other commercial vessels, sparing everyone except Saudi Arabia’s fleet, as the Houthis expanded control along Yemen’s Red Sea coast.
US refusal and Saudi pressure
The Guardian reported that the US decision not to intervene to help Saudi Arabia drive back a Houthi advance inside Yemen followed the Houthis’ reassurances that they had no intention of attacking US shipping in the Red Sea. Nabeel Khoury, described by the Guardian as a former deputy US ambassador to Yemen, said a “kind of tacit understanding” had been struck between the Trump administration and the Houthis, adding: “The Houthis are promising the American administration that American and international navigation will not be affected in the Red Sea, but the only danger is to Saudi ships or those carrying Saudi oil.”
The Guardian also said Riyadh made a disputed claim that the Houthis had fired a drone at the holy city of Mecca on Tuesday, and that the missile had been destroyed by Saudi defence forces, with the coalition spokesperson Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki saying the drone was intercepted at about 6.50pm local time. In response to the Mecca claim, the Guardian quoted Houthi deputy foreign minister Abdul Wahid abu Ras saying “whoever opened the land of the two holy mosques to debauchery and entertainment parties, and whoever defiled the land of the two holy mosques by the presence of Zionist Jews in it, is the one who targets Mecca, Medina and the Islamic holy sites”.
Shipping, oil, and next risks
The Guardian said the US refusal to become directly involved has put pressure on Saudi Arabia to reach either a diplomatic solution with the Houthis over the future governance of Yemen, or to try to build a regional alliance with Pakistan and Turkey to force the Houthis back. India Today reported that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo as Riyadh sought support against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, whose attacks have disrupted key shipping routes and pushed up oil prices globally.
India Today also said fuel shortages in Yemen were making it harder for people to flee and cross the Red Sea to Djibouti, and that UN refugee agency figures put more than 2,000 Yemenis in Djibouti and more than 100,000 others displaced inside Yemen. In the same report, UK Prime Minister’s spokesman Tom Wells said the Houthis “must cease their attacks immediately” and added that Saudi Arabia and Yemen “have the right to defend themselves,” while Anees al Asbahi of the Houthi-run Health Ministry said on X that Saudi airstrikes in Taiz province killed three people, including two children.