Yemen Asks Trump for Military Help Against Houthis

The Yemeni government has asked President Donald Trump for US military support in its fight against the Houthis, as the Iranian-backed rebels expand their control along Yemen’s Red Sea coast and threaten shipping routes used for global energy supplies, a senior official said.

Yemen Raises request in Call With Trump

President Rashad al-Alimi conveyed the request to Trump in a call earlier this week, Abdullah Al-Alimi Bawazir, vice president of the Yemeni Leadership Council, said on Wednesday at the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Bawazir was speaking after Reuters reported this week, citing one Yemeni and one Western source, that Trump made no direct pledge of military support during the conversation. Bawazir said he was not aware of any rejection of the request.

He said Trump understands the threat posed by the Houthis and that Yemen hopes to see increased support for the government. “We hope and expect more support for the Yemeni government in the face of the Houthi militias,” he said.

The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment sent by email overnight.

Yemeni request focuses on coordination and capacity

Bawazir did not specify whether US support should include direct military strikes against the rebels.

“We do not ask the American soldiers to actually go into war on our behalf,” he said, adding that Yemen is also not seeking assurances that the US would do nothing.

Instead, he said Yemen is looking for “mutual coordination on the intel and security fields” and for the US to help strengthen the Yemeni authorities’ own military capability to counter the threat.

“The aerial campaigns are important,” Bawazir said. “But supporting the Yemeni government and forces on the ground is indeed a guarantor to end the danger of those militias.”

He said Yemen has been discussing these issues in depth with the United States, while indicating that his government is comfortable with the US position.

Houthis press toward Red Sea choke point

The conflict in Yemen has continued in different phases since 2014, when the Houthis drove the internationally recognised government out of Sanaa and triggered a regional proxy confrontation, with Saudi Arabia backing the exiled authorities against the rebels.

In their latest offensive, the Houthis have advanced along Yemen’s Red Sea coastline with the aim of cutting off the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The strait is a key route for Saudi Arabia’s oil shipments, and its importance has grown since Iran effectively reduced the flow of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Saudi Arabia, a close US ally and a key participant in the US-led response to Iran, has urged Washington to take military action against the Houthis. The pressure followed an attack launched over the weekend on the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

So far, US support has been limited to intelligence and targeting information.

Ceasefire ended, strikes ordered then cancelled

Trump announced a ceasefire with the Houthis last year after weeks of US strikes against the group, but he ordered strikes on Sunday, according to NBC News. The order was later cancelled hours afterward.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that the US has made commitments to Saudi Arabia and was fulfilling them, adding that the president has “many options available to him”.

Trump has also said the Houthis do not want to fight the US, telling reporters while in Ireland that the group would rather avoid US involvement and that “they’re letting most ships go through”.

Houthis deny targeting the US

Mohamed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ political bureau, told the Associated Press on Sunday that the US had approached the rebel group after its advance toward Bab el-Mandeb. He said the Houthis were not targeting the US or other countries in the strait, “with the sole exception of the Saudi enemy”.

Bawazir warned that it would be a mistake to accept assurances from a group he said is linked to a “deviant state” in the region, referring to Iran, because that could be seen as legitimising the Houthis.

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25 September 2026