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The war with Iran became increasingly complex this week amid the possibility that the Iranian-backed Houthis may be blockading the Red Sea amid an already tense shipping squeeze in the Strait of Hormuz.
“So far, it hasn’t happened,” President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “It might happen, but we take care of things. If something like that happens, we take care of it. You know, we’ve done that with the Houthis before.”
According to The New York Times, the Houthis, based in Yemen, have said that they will impose a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is an ally of the United States and has reportedly been working around some of the Iranian threats in the Persian Gulf by making use of its Red Sea ports. The Houthis have a stronghold on a key chokepoint on the sea, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, per the outlet.
“We’ve had no problem with the Houthis, they’ve had no problem with us, for a long period of time, including during this conflict,” President Trump said of reports about the Houthis. “I think that if there is something like that we’ll just have to take care of business.”
The added layer of potential threat comes on the heels of a 10th consecutive night of U.S. strikes against Iran. As reported by RSBN, the campaign is designed to degrade Iranian military capabilities used to repeatedly threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, per CENTCOM.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told reporters on Tuesday in the Oval Office that Iran had “been given every opportunity to negotiate, to show that they’re reasonable on the Strait of Hormuz – but if they’re going to shoot at commercial shipping, then we’re going to him them, as the president said, ten times harder.”
He said that “every night” U.S. forces were “degrading” Iranian capabilities “further and further.”
Hegseth continued, “The president has all the options necessary. If they want to talk, they can talk; otherwise, they can deal with the War Department, and we’re prepared to do that.”
