Israel attacks Yemen airport after Houthi missile strike near Tel Aviv airport
(LONDON) — TThe Israeli military on Tuesday launched an attack on Yemen’s Sana’a International Airport and other civilian sites, claiming they were used by Houthi militants.
The strike came two days after a ballistic missile launched from Yemen by the Iran-backed Houthis landed near Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday that the central Yemen airport “is used by the Houthi terrorist organization for the transfer of weapons and operatives, and is regularly operated by the Houthi regime for terrorist purposes.”
The airport strike led “to its complete shutdown,” the IDF said. Israel also targeted power stations and a concrete factory, which it accused the Houthis of using to build tunnels and military infrastructure.
“This is another example of the Houthi terrorist organization’s use of civilian infrastructure for terrorist operations,” an IDF spokesperson said in a statement.
Avichay Adraee, the Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic spokesperson, posted an evacuation warning on social media prior to the strike.
“We call upon you to evacuate the airport area — Sana’a International Airport — immediately and warn everyone in your vicinity of the need to evacuate this area immediately,” Adraee said. “Failure to evacuate and move away from the place exposes you to danger.”
(LONDON) — Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reacted to President Donald Trump’s remarks about Iran, calling them “pure deception.”
Trump described Tehran as the “most destructive force” in the region during a speech on Tuesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and accused Iranian leaders of being “focused on stealing their people’s wealth” to fund regional proxies.
“It is America that has prevented the progress of the Iranian nation through its sanctions over the past forty-odd years, with its own pressures and military and civilian threats; the one responsible for the economic problems is America,” Araghchi said to the press on the sidelines of the government board meeting, as the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.
Trump’s criticisms of the Islamic Republic came a few days after the fourth round of Iran-U.S. nuclear talks in Muscat, which Tehran described as “difficult but useful.” Washington said was “encouraged” by its outcome.
“The fact that Trump is applying maximum pressure in this very meeting and then addressing Iran’s economic problems is not entirely correct,” the Iranian foreign minister said.
Addressing Trump’s comments on Iran’s regional presence, Araghchi reiterated Tehran’s position that Israel is the source of threat in the region with the strikes and killing in the Gaza Strip, where the Israel Defense Forces say that they are fighting Hamas militants.
America presenting “Iran as a threat is pure deception and a substitution of threats,” Araghchi said.
Iranian foreign minister said that Iran is waiting for Omani authorities to announce the time and place of the next round of negotiations, saying Tehran’s approach is to pursue dialogue.
(LONDON) — President Donald Trump on Monday said that further attacks or retaliation by the Houthis would be considered an attack by Iran and it would face “dire” consequences.p
Trump’s threat comes after the U.S. launched a new series of airstrikes against the Yemeni group beginning Saturday. The Houthis on Sunday claimed to have thwarted “a hostile attack the enemy was preparing to launch against our country.” A U.S. official told ABC News that the Houthis fired 11 drones and one ballistic missile at the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier group in the Red Sea, none of which came close to hitting any U.S. vessels.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called the Houthis “sinister mobsters and thugs” said their attacks “emanate from, and are created by, IRAN.”
Trump said Iran is “dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, ‘Intelligence.'”
“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 said.
The Houthis claimed to have fired 18 ballistic missiles and a drone in two separate attacks over the previous 24 hours. All drones were downed by fighters — 10 shot down by Air Force planes and one by Navy planes — while the ballistic missile was not intercepted as it fell far short of the vessels, the U.S. official said.
Trump described the U.S. strikes as “decisive and powerful military action” against the Iranian-backed group. The Houthis have been targeting Western-linked shipping and launching munitions into Israel since the fall of 2022, in protest of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft and drones,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday. “We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective.”
A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News on Sunday that U.S. air and naval assets hit dozens of Houthi targets in Yemen, including missiles, radars and drone and air defense systems. The official characterized the attacks as an opening salvo against the Houthis that sends a strong message to Iran.
The Yemeni Health Ministry said the strikes killed 53 people and injured 98 more.
Speaking with reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said he was not concerned about retaliatory strikes related to the latest American strikes.
National security adviser Mike Waltz told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the strikes represented “an overwhelming response that actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out. And the difference here is, one, going after the Houthi leadership, and two, holding Iran responsible.”
Detailing their latest attack on U.S. Navy vessels, the Houthis said in a Sunday statement that they will “continue to ban the passage of Israeli ships through the zone of operations until the blockade on the Gaza Strip is lifted.”
ABC News’ Will Gretsky, Nicholas Kerr and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump will hold a high-stakes call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Tuesday as he tries to win his approval of a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine.
“It’s a bad situation in Russia, and it’s a bad situation in Ukraine,” Trump said on Monday. “What’s happening in Ukraine is not good, but we’re going to see if we can work a peace agreement, a ceasefire and peace, and I think we’ll be able to do it.”
That positive assessment follows his prediction Sunday night that “we’ll see if we have something to announce — maybe by Tuesday,” saying “a lot of work” had been done over the weekend. “Maybe we can. Maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance.”
The Kremlin on Tuesday said it expects the call within a two-hour window beginning at about 9 a.m. ET. The encounter would be the first known call between Trump and Putin since peace talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials a week ago in Saudi Arabia yielded Kyiv agreeing to an immediate, temporary stop to hostilities should Russia do the same.
Since then, Putin has been noncommittal on the proposal while fighting intensifies in Kursk.
Putin said he was “for” a ceasefire but raised concerns and set out his own conditions, such as certain security guarantees. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has accused the Russian leader of obstructing peace and “prolonging” the war.
Trump on Monday said the only reason he was involved in negotiations is “for humanity.”
“A lot of people are being killed over there. And, we had to get Ukraine to do the right thing. It was not an easy situation. You got to see a little glimpse at the Oval Office, but I think they’re doing the right thing right now. And we’re trying to get a peace agreement done. We want to get a ceasefire and then a peace agreement,” he said.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy will monitor the conversation between Trump and Putin with caution and great interest, a Ukrainian official informed about the matter told ABC News.
“We agreed to the U.S. ceasefire proposal with zero conditions, and if Putin is gonna start playing with Trump setting demands — it will not work,” the source added.
A key question moving forward is how far Trump will go in pressuring Russia to agree to a ceasefire and ultimately bring an end to the three-year conflict, which began when Putin’s forces invaded its sovereign neighbor.
The Trump administration took drastic steps in stopping military aid and pausing some intelligence sharing with Ukraine after the Oval Office clash between Trump and Zelenskyy. Those two tools resumed after Ukraine agreed to the ceasefire last Tuesday.
Plus, U.S. officials have said it would be unrealistic for Ukraine to return to its prewar borders and expressly ruled out its bid for NATO membership.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has not publicly made similar demands of Putin.
Trump on Sunday said land and power plants were on the table for Tuesday’s discussion, as well as “dividing up certain assets” between the two countries.
“Well, I think we’ll be talking about land. It’s a lot of land. It’s a lot different than it was before the wars, you know. And we’ll be talking about land, we’ll be talking about power plants. That’s a big question, but I think we have a lot of it already discussed, very much by both sides,” he told reporters on Air Force One.
Trump last week said his administration could ramp up pressure on Russia but hoped it wouldn’t be “necessary.”
“There are things you could do that wouldn’t be pleasant in a financial sense,” he said. “I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace.”
ABC News’ Oleksiy Pshemyskiy and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
