Exclusive-Yemen's Houthis won't 'dial down' under US pressure or Iranian appeals

By Maha El Dahan, Parisa Hafezi and Mohammed Ghobari

DUBAI (Reuters) - Yemen's Houthis will not "dial down" their action against Israeli shipping in the Red Sea in response to U.S. military pressure or appeals from the group's allies such as Iran, the Yemeni militant group's foreign minister said.

Jamal Amer spoke to Reuters late on Monday after the U.S. launched a wave of strikes in areas of Yemen controlled by the Iran-aligned Houthis, who said last week they were resuming attacks on Red Sea shipping to support Palestinians in Gaza.

Two senior Iranian officials told Reuters that Iran had delivered a verbal message to the Houthi envoy in Tehran on Friday to cool tensions and that Iran's foreign minister asked Oman, which has mediated with the Houthis, to convey a similar message to the group when he visited Muscat on Sunday. Both officials asked not to be named.

Iran has not made any public comment about recent outreach to the Houthis over their renewed action. Tehran says the group takes decisions independently.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he would hold Iran responsible for any attacks carried out by the Houthis.

"There will be no talk of any dialling down of operations before ending the aid blockade in Gaza. Iran is not interfering in our decision but what is happening is that it mediates sometimes but it cannot dictate things," Amer said, in his first comments on the issue to a foreign news agency.

Speaking from Yemen's capital Sanaa, which has been hit by U.S. strikes, he said he had not been informed of any message Iran delivered to the Houthi envoy in Tehran.

There were messages from other powers to dial down, he said, but added: "Now we see that Yemen is at war with the U.S. and that means that we have a right to defend ourselves with all possible means, so escalation is likely."

IRANIAN CONCERNS

Iran, whose network of proxies and allies across the Middle East has taken a hammering since the war in Gaza erupted in 2023, has shown increasing concern it could be drawn deeper into conflict with the United States. Iran and Israel exchanged direct strikes for the first time last year as the Gaza war escalated.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 deal between Iran and six major powers that curbed its sensitive nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief, has stepped up a "maximum pressure" campaign of sanctions on Iran since returning to office for a second term in January.

"(The U.S.) is threatening Iran and hitting Yemen. Now all scenarios are possible. We will do what they will do to us. If they are hitting us from (U.S. aircraft carrier USS Harry S.) Truman, we will retaliate by hitting Truman," the Houthi foreign minister said.

While Iran champions the Houthis, the Yemeni group says it is aligned with Tehran and its 'Axis of Resistance' network without being puppets. Experts on Yemen, where the Houthis expanded control during years of civil war, say the group seems mainly motivated by domestic concerns and support base.

The Houthis said on March 12 they had resumed attacks on Israeli ships using routes that pass through the Red Sea after the group said Israel had not met a Houthi deadline for ending an aid blockade on Gaza.

Israel's blockade, which includes food and medical supplies, began on March 2 as a standoff over a ceasefire deal in Gaza escalated. Israel launched heavy strikes on Gaza overnight into Tuesday.

WAVES OF STRIKES

The Houthis had launched more than 100 attacks targeting shipping from November 2023, saying they were in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel's war with Hamas, another of Iran's regional allies, in Gaza. It suspended operations when the Gaza ceasefire came into effect in January.

The Houthi foreign minister said the group had aimed only to target Israeli ships, but the U.S. had escalated and the Houthis had a right to defend themselves.

The U.S. began a wave of strikes on Saturday that have hit the capital and expanded across Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, killing dozens of people.

Amer said some European Union countries had advised the Houthis not to escalate, and said the group had sought to reassure them that the target was Israeli shipping.

He also said Saudi Arabia, which backed Yemen's internationally recognised government against the Houthis in the civil war, had not intervened militarily so far, and nor had other Gulf states. That was something that Houthis valued, he added, while warning that Gulf states risked being caught in the crossfire if they intervened militarily.

"If any aircraft or base is used against us then we will escalate and we will defend ourselves, but if they (Gulf states) continue to be neutral we will stay away," he said.

The Saudi government communications office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Editing by Edmund Blair, Aidan Lewis)