Iran strikes ‘not off the table’ in war on Houthis: Waltz

The US National Security Adviser says Washington will target Iran’s support network for the Houthis and won’t rule out direct military action against Iranian intelligence and weapons supplies.

President Trump’s national security adviser has warned Tehran that “all options are on the table” to stop its nuclear ambitions and eradicate the Houthi rebels in Yemen, including strikes on Iran.

Mike Waltz said that airstrikes against the Tehran-aligned militant group over the weekend had “targeted multiple Houthi leaders”, without specifying which leaders had been killed. The Houthis said at least 31 people were killed, a number that could not be verified.

Waltz told ABC News that the United States would target Iran’s support network for the Houthis and did not rule out direct military action against Iranian intelligence, training, funding and weapons supplies.

“All actions are always on the table with the president, but Iran needs to hear him loud and clear,” Waltz said. “The support that they’ve been providing the Houthis, just like they have Hezbollah, the militias in Iraq, Hamas and others … It is unacceptable and it will be stopped.”

In response to the strikes the militants said their operations on international waterways would continue until aid is allowed back into Gaza, despite temporarily halting their offensive during the present ceasefire. Israel has blocked all aid from entering Gaza for weeks in an attempt to weaken Hamas and its negotiating position.

Hossein Salami, the top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, sought to distance the regime in Tehran from the militia. He told state media: “We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they carry out their threats.”

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, told the CBS News program Face the Nation: “There’s no way the … Houthis would have the ability to do this kind of thing unless they had support from Iran.

“So this was a message to Iran: don’t keep supporting them, because then you will also be responsible for what they are doing in attacking Navy ships and global shipping.”

The Houthis, who control most of Yemen’s populated areas including the capital, Sanaa, and the Red Sea coastline, have threatened to resume attacks on ships passing through the Bab el-Mandeb strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, should they violate the ban they have imposed on Israel, the US and the UK. The group has been launching missiles and drones at ships in the Red Sea for more than a year in support of the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, that led to the war in Gaza.

Waltz said Trump was “determined, one way or another” to stop Tehran from developing atomic weapons. Waltz said: “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. All options are on the table to ensure it does not have one. And that’s all aspects of Iran’s program … the missiles, weaponisation, the enrichment … we cannot have a world with the ayatollahs with their finger on the nuclear button.”

The Times