U.S. officials met privately with a Houthi delegation in Oman shortly after the Iran-aligned Yemeni rebel group seized strategic points along the Red Sea coast.
According to Reuters on the 15th, the Houthi delegation met U.S. officials at the U.S. Embassy in Muscat, the Omani capital, over the weekend and conveyed that it has no intention of attacking U.S. vessels and will continue to abide by the ceasefire agreement reached with Washington in 2025.
The Houthis also said they would refrain from attacking Israeli and other commercial ships, excluding vessels flying the Saudi Arabian flag, according to the report.
The meeting, mediated by the Omani government, brought together embassy officials on the U.S. side and Houthi leaders including Mohammed Abdul Salam and Abdelmalik al-Ajri, both of whom are on the U.S. sanctions list. The two are currently staying in Muscat.
The U.S. State Department declined to confirm the meeting itself, repeating only its general position that defending freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and preventing the spread of terrorism in the Middle East are core U.S. interests. The Omani Embassy and the Houthis also offered no comment.
The talks came immediately after the Houthis cemented their military advantage, driving out Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and securing control across the Red Sea coast, including the port city of Mocha and Perim Island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler, personally called U.S. President Donald Trump to request military support, but Washington ruled out direct military intervention, sources said.
The Trump administration designated the Houthis a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) in March last year, but it also pursued behind-the-scenes negotiations to protect commercial shipping in the Red Sea, leading to a ceasefire agreement that May. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have both publicly acknowledged recent contacts with the Houthis or messages received from them.
The Houthis, who captured the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in 2014, have fought a Saudi-led coalition for more than a decade. A 2022 truce brought a lull, but the group declared the ceasefire over after an airstrike on Sanaa airport in July. It then announced a maritime blockade targeting Saudi Arabia in response to the kingdom's blockade of Yemeni ports, driving a renewed escalation of hostilities.
