Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Sunday that the United States would conduct "unrelenting" strikes against the Houthis in Yemen until the militant group ceases their military actions targeting US assets and global shipping.
Speaking on Fox News on Sunday, hours after the Trump administration launched strikes against the Iran-backed Yemeni terror group, Hegseth said the campaign was a response to the scores of attacks the Houthis have launched on ships since November 2023 and served as a warning to Iran to stop backing the group.
"This will continue until you say 'We're done shooting at ships. We're done shooting at assets,'" Hegseth said, adding that the US had no interest in the Yemeni Civil War.
“We don’t want a long, limited war in the Middle East," he continued. "This is about stopping the shooting at assets in that critical waterway to reopen freedom of navigation, which is a core national interest of the United States."
He ended his response with a direct message for the Islamic Republic.
"Iran has been enabling the Houthis for far too long. They better back off."
Iran has been enabling the Houthis for far too long….they better back off. pic.twitter.com/3NhVFKtvIK
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) March 16, 2025
'Iran better back off'
In response, Hossein Salami, the top commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, said the Houthis took their own decisions.
"We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they carry out their threats," he told state media.
However, according to reporting from The Jerusalem Post, there is reason to believe that Iran is backing away from its terror proxy group.
Iranian state media reported on March 16 that “the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Major General Hossein Salami said that Yemen’s Houthi “resistance movement makes its decisions independently.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio countered Salami's assertions in a Sunday interview with CBS News's 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. And 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 attacking global shipping."
The Houthis reintroduced a threat to attack all Israeli ships on March 12.
The terrorist organization also said that US attacks on Yemen posed a more real threat to international shipping in the Red Sea.
Seth J. Frantzman contributed to this report.