“To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP,” President Donald Trump warned the Iran-backed terror group in Yemen as U.S. Central Command launched a large-scale operation against Houthi targets in Yemen on March 15.
Following a subsequent failed Houthi retaliation, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!”
The Trump administration’s decision to preemptively strike Houthi assets in Yemen and issue a direct warning to Iran follows threats by the terror group to resume attacks against Israeli ships in the Red Sea. It also signals the new administration’s willingness to connect the dots between patron and proxy and focus on the chief source of regional instability: the Islamic Republic of Iran. To that end, the administration has already reimposed maximum pressure against Iran, redesignated the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), and sanctioned Houthi weapons smugglers.
The Houthi’s Terrorist Track Record
Over the past 15 months, the Houthis have attacked U.S. Navy vessels 174 times and commercial ships 145 times, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. They have also launched hundreds of drone and missile attacks against Israel. Houthi leaders frame these attacks as a form of solidarity with Palestinians following Hamas’s October 7 terrorist atrocities against Israel and the ensuing Israeli campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Houthi terrorism has also caused a 90 percent drop in Red Sea shipping, according to an April 2024 Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report, as well as higher shipping costs due to longer routes and rising insurance premiums.
Both in 2021 and again in 2025, when designating the Houthis as an FTO, the Trump administration cited their close ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — itself an FTO since 2019.
Iranian Weapons Enable Houthi Terrorism
The DIA assessed, “Iranian leaders’ statements and Tehran’s weapons proliferation illustrate how Iran views the Houthis as integral to its own efforts to project power and destabilize the region.” The Houthis are the only terror group in Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” to have medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) and anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs).
Yemen has long been an arena for Tehran to test weapons under battlefield conditions, including against Western air and missile defenses, as well as to reverse-proliferate modified platforms back to Iran. Prior to the 2022 ceasefire in Yemen, the Houthis deployed and employed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), anti-ship missiles, unmanned maritime craft, ballistic missiles, and other weapons with origins in or parts from Iran. Iran’s weapons proliferation to the Houthis has steadily allowed the Islamic Republic to indirectly cement its influence over Yemen.
Iran and Its Global Threat Network on Notice
Following the collapse of Iran’s sole state ally in the region — the Assad regime in Syria — as well as the battlefield setbacks of Hezbollah and Hamas, the Houthis in Yemen are fast emerging as the most powerful element of Iran’s regional terror network. Despite the robust material, financial, and political support Tehran has heaped on the group, it is currently downplaying ties to the Houthis to avoid kinetic blowback. To that end, Iran’s IRGC chief recently stated, “the Yemenis are an independent and free nation in their own land, with an independent national policy.”
Tehran’s attempt to distance itself from a non-state group to which it has provided state-level military capabilities indicates its sense of weakness, which should be exploited to roll back its regional terror network and military nuclear program. The Trump administration should not hesitate to follow up on its words with deeds should Tehran not work to rein in its partner in the Arabian Peninsula.
Behnam Ben Taleblu is a senior fellow and senior director of the Iran Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), whereBridget Toomey is a research analyst. For more analysis from the authors and FDD, please subscribeHERE. Follow FDD on X@FDD and@FDD_Iran. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on foreign policy and national security.
Issues:
Gulf States Iran Iran Global Threat Network Iran-backed Terrorism Military and Political Power U.S. Defense Policy and Strategy