A Houthi fighter mans a machine gun mounted on a truck during a parade for people who attended Houthi military training as part of a mobilization campaign, in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Yemen’s Houthis said on Tuesday they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red and Arabian seas, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden, ending a period of relative calm starting in January with the Gaza ceasefire.

The Iran-backed Houthis had launched more than 100 attacks targeting shipping from November 2023, saying they were in solidarity with Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

During that period, the group sank two vessels, seized another, and killed at least four seafarers in an offensive that disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa.

The leader of Yemen’s Houthis had warned on Friday that the group would resume its naval operations against Israel if Israel did not lift a blockage of aid into Gaza within four days.

On March 2, Israel blocked the entry of aid trucks into Gaza as a standoff over the truce escalated, with Hamas calling on Egyptian and Qatari mediators to intervene.

“This ban will remain in effect until the crossings to the Gaza Strip are reopened and humanitarian aid, including food and medical supplies, is allowed to enter,” the group said in an emailed statement on Wednesday, adding that the ban would take place with immediate effect.

The US State Department said earlier this month it was implementing the designation of the movement as a “foreign terrorist organization” after President Donald Trump’s call for the move.

In January, Trump re-designated the Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organization, aiming to impose harsher economic penalties in response to its attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and against US warships defending the critical maritime area.

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A person holds flags as people celebrate after the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls much of Syria’s oil-rich northeast, has signed a deal agreeing to integrate into Syria’s new state institutions, the Syrian presidency said on Monday, in Damascus, Syria, March 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

The United States encouraged its Syrian Kurdish allies to reach Monday’s landmark deal with the Islamist-led government in Damascus, six sources said, an agreement that could stave off further conflict in northern Syria at a time of uncertainty over the future of US forces deployed there.

The deal aims to stitch back together a country fractured by 14 years of war, paving the way for Kurdish-led forces which hold a quarter of Syria to merge with Damascus, along with regional Kurdish governing bodies. Key details of how this will happen have yet to be spelt out, however.

General Mazloum Abdi, head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), was flown to Damascus for Monday’s signing with interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa aboard a US military aircraft, three sources said.

Three other sources – US officials – said the United States had encouraged the SDF to move towards an agreement to resolve its status in the new Syria – the focus of multi-track talks which began after Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December and which Reuters reported on in January.

“The US played a very crucial role,” a senior regional intelligence source said.

The deal came at a moment of pressure on both sides.

Sharaa is grappling with the fallout of sectarian killings which were reportedly carried out by militants aligned with his government, while the SDF is locked in conflict with Turkey-backed Syrian groups who are allied to Damascus.

Four sources, including one close to the Syrian government, said the sectarian violence had nudged along the agreement.

The intelligence source and a Damascus-based diplomat expected the deal to ease Turkish military pressure on the SDF, deemed by Ankara as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Turkey has welcomed the agreement.

A Syrian government official said the presidency would work to address pending issues between the SDF and Turkey.

DEEP TIES

Washington has developed deep ties to Syria’s Kurdish groups since deploying forces to the country to fight Islamic State a decade ago, partnering with Kurdish fighters despite objections from Turkey.

The US troop deployment has come into renewed focus since President Donald Trump returned to power.

Ahead of any policy decisions on Syria, the Pentagon has started developing plans for a potential withdrawal, should one be ordered, US officials tell Reuters.

Still, a US defense official told Reuters on Tuesday there was no sign that a pullout was imminent.

The US defense official said General Michael Kurilla, commander of US Central Command, had helped pushed the SDF towards the deal but that the agreement was already moving along.

The thinking in the US administration was that the SDF would be unlikely to hold onto its territory in the long-term if it faced pressure from Turkey and the new Syrian government combined, the US defense official said.

“The United States is looking for ways to withdraw from Syria without chaos and blowback. The best way of doing that is to secure a deal among the Syrian factions,” said Aron Lund of Century International, a US-based think tank.

“A negotiated handover makes sense for the United States. It’s Washington’s best bet, to avoid conflict between the Kurdish-led forces and the new government in Damascus, and to prevent a Turkish attack across the border,” he said.

DEVIL IN THE DETAIL

The US military declined comment on all aspects of the deal, including any role it may have had in encouraging talks or whether it provided transportation to Abdi to reach Damascus.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that Washington welcomed the agreement.

Erdem Ozan, a former Turkish diplomat and expert on Syria, said the agreement benefited both sides. “Sharaa gains political breathing room after recent unrest in the coastal area, and the SDF avoids a direct clash with Turkey at a time when US policy on Syria remains uncertain,” he said.

The deal did not say how the SDF will be merged with Syria’s armed forces. The SDF has previously said its forces must join as a bloc. Damascus wants them to join as individuals.

The Syrian government official said committees would work to address details, including the control of borders.

“While it might seem like a win-win now, the real test will be in its execution,” Ozan said.

An SDF spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions. Abdi has called the deal a “real opportunity to build a new Syria.”

The deal was struck at a potentially historic moment for the Kurds, following a call by the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan for his group to disarm. Though heavily influenced by Ocalan, the SDF has said this does not apply to it.

Aaron Zelin, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Washington wants to ensure the fight against Islamic State continues smoothly, with Damascus eventually taking up responsibilities for countering it.

“It also helps unify the country which is in the interest of the US since it wants stability and not internal power fights,” he said.

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with Iran’s parliament members in Tehran, Iran, July 21, 2024. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday rejected the idea of holding negotiations with the United States over a nuclear deal, as a letter arrived from US President Donald Trump calling for such talks.

Trump said last week he had sent a letter to Khamenei proposing nuclear talks but also warning that “there are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal” preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

The letter was handed over to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Wednesday by Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates.

While Araqchi and Gargash were meeting, Khamenei told a group of university students that Trump’s offer for talks was “a deception aimed at misleading public opinion,” state media reported.

“When we know they won’t honor it, what’s the point of negotiating? Therefore, the invitation to negotiate … is a deception of public opinion,” Khamenei was quoted as saying by state media.

Khamenei said negotiating with the Trump administration, which he said has excessive demands, “will tighten the knot of sanctions and increase pressure on Iran.”

In 2018, Trump withdrew the United States from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy. Tehran reacted a year later by violating the deal’s nuclear curbs.

Khamenei, who has the final word in Iranian state matters, said last week that Tehran would not be bullied into talks with “excessive demands” and threats.

The UAE, one of Washington’s key Middle East security partners and host to US troops, also maintains warm ties with Tehran. Despite past tensions, business and trade links between the two countries have remained strong, and Dubai has served as a key commercial hub for Iran for more than a century.

While leaving the door open for a nuclear pact with Tehran, Trump has reinstated the “maximum pressure” campaign he applied in his first term as president to isolate Iran from the global economy and drive its oil exports towards zero.

‘NEW AND BIZARRE’

Iran has long denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon.

“If we wanted to build nuclear weapons, the US would not be able to stop it. We ourselves do not want it,” Khamenei said.

However, Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90 percent weapons-grade level, has jumped, the International Atomic Energy Agency said late last month.

Separately, Araqchi denounced a closed-door UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday about Iran’s nuclear work as a new process that puts in doubt the goodwill of the states requesting it.

Six of the council’s 15 members – France, Greece, Panama, South Korea, Britain, and the US – requested the meeting over Iran’s expansion of its stock of close to weapons-grade uranium.

Araqchi said Iran would soon have a fifth round of talks with France, Britain, and Germany – parties to Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact.

“Our talks with Europeans have been ongoing and will continue … however, any decision by the UN Security Council or board of governors of the UN nuclear watchdog to pressure us will put under question the legitimacy of these talks,” Araqchi said according to state media.

Separately, the Chinese foreign ministry said China and Russia will hold talks with Iranian officials in Beijing on Friday to discuss the Iranian nuclear issue.

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