US President Donald Trump made the shock announcement in the White House on Tuesday that he was calling off a bombing campaign on Yemen's Houthis after the Iran-backed group "capitulated" by agreeing to halt attacks on shipping.
Oman said on Tuesday it was mediating a Houthi-US ceasefire deal, but adding to the fog of war, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti was quoted by Bloomberg as saying after Trump's announcement that it would continue its campaign until Israel halts attacks on Gaza.
Tehran and Washington have signaled continued commitment to nuclear negotiations but stepped-up combat between the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen and Israel had cast a shadow over the diplomatic efforts.
The Houthis pierced Israel's air defenses to land a ballistic missile near Israel's main airport on Saturday and Israeli fighter jets attacked Yemen's main port on Monday and airport on Tuesday along with power plants and a factory.
"Our choice of when to respond, how to respond, and on what targets to respond - this is a consideration we make every time," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.
"And this also concerns the patron of the Houthis - Iran, without whose approval and their long-term support, the Houthis cannot carry out their criminal missile attack."
The uptick in violence suggests the religious militia and perhaps its backers in Tehran are not deterred despite the painful blows Israel has meted out to Iran and its armed affiliates in over a year of regional fighting.
Before the Ben Gurion airport attack, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also warned of unspecified payback for Tehran, citing its continued support for the Houthis despite an explicit warning from President Trump that they desist support or face attack.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has long rejected the notion that groups like the Houthis act at Iran’s direction. “The Islamic Republic does not have proxies. Yemen is fighting because of its faith,” he said in a December 2024 speech.
In a letter to the United Nations on Monday, Iran's UN ambassador Saeid Iravani rejected allegations of complicity in the Houthi attack on the airport, warning that “the United States and the Israeli regime will bear full and unequivocal responsibility for all consequences” arising from any aggression on the Islamic Republic.
The future of Iran-US indirect talks currently hangs in the balance after a fourth round is due to be held in Oman over the weekend after they were delayed by a week for unclear reasons.
Hardline Iranian media and officials, including the IRGC-linked Javan newspaper, praise the Houthis for their anti-Israeli and anti-American positions. “Ansarullah's missiles on Ben Gurion shook Israel’s psychological security,” Ali Shamkhani, a Khamenei advisor, wrote Tuesday on X.
“The attack from Sanaa was a strategic blow to the delusion of the Resistance’s collapse — a front that now holds the initiative, with an ever-growing presence from Lebanon and Gaza to Iraq and Sanaa,” he wrote.
Yet, the strike's timing has led some commentators to posit that that factions within Iran may be actively undermining diplomatic progress.
Iranian-Canadian analyst Shahir Shahidsaless raised the question directly: “Is the hardline faction of the Iranian government once again trying to sabotage and disrupt the talks?” he posted on X.
Even some conservatives have acknowledged that the timing of the strike could be damaging to the US talks. Military analyst Behzad Atabaki, writing on a Telegram channel, argued that Iran should have at least called for a pause in Houthi attacks during the negotiation period. “Maybe it’s too late, maybe not,” he said.
