On Monday, President Donald Trump escalated tensions with Iran, declaring that any additional strikes by Yemen’s Houthi militants would be considered a direct attack by Iran and would be met with “great force.”
“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!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump’s threats echo his administration’s recent efforts to combat the militant group’s attacks on US warships and assert dominance over Iran.
The president announced over the weekend that the United States has launched a new campaign of airstrikes against multiple targets controlled by Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, marking the administration’s most aggressive use of military force against foreign adversaries to date.
“Any further attack or retaliation by the ‘Houthis’ will be met with great force, and there is no guarantee that that force will stop there,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
For the past two years, the Houthis have targeted military and commercial shipping in the Red Sea, effectively shutting down a vital waterway for global trade.
On Sunday, Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, did not rule out the use of military force against Iran in response to the country’s support for the Houthis or its ambitions to become a nuclear power.
