“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 on Monday.
The president’s statement comes as his administration intensifies its efforts against the Iran-backed Houthis.
US airstrikes over the weekend killed at least 53 people, reports the BBC, and further military action appears likely. At the same time, Iran is still weighing its response to a letter from Trump aimed at restarting talks on Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.
Describing the Houthis as “sinister mobsters and thugs,” Trump warned that any attack by the group would be met with “great force, and there is no guarantee that that force will stop there.”
“Iran has played ‘the innocent victim’ of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control,” Trump wrote. “They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, ‘Intelligence.’”
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards recently sought to distance Tehran from Houthi actions. Over the weekend, the Houthis launched drones and missiles at the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, though none reached the vessel, which continues operations in the region, says Al Jazeera.
