Vice President JD Vance said Monday that the United States is engaged in direct talks with Yemen's Houthis, confirming a working channel between Washington and the Iran-backed group days after it completed its takeover of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Vance said the administration has been in contact with the Houthis as the group consolidates control over Yemen's western coastline and deepens its influence over the strait.Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews before departing for Kansas, Vance said the administration maintains constant communication with regional allies including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and said officials remain vigilant regarding the evolving crisis.
He described the situation as volatile and dynamic, and said Washington wanted to keep monitoring it.
The confirmation came the same day Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received the commander of US Central Command in Jeddah. According to the Saudi Press Agency, the crown prince met Admiral Brad Cooper and his accompanying delegation to review bilateral relations and discuss regional developments, with Minister of State and National Security Adviser Musaed bin Mohammed al-Aiban also attending.
The meeting followed a request from Riyadh for direct American military involvement. Three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that the crown prince had sought military assistance from President Donald Trump against the Houthis, that Trump did not agree to US strikes on the group, and that Washington instead told Riyadh it would provide intelligence-sharing and targeting assistance.
Trump signaled the existence of a Houthi channel several days earlier. He said the Houthis had contacted his administration, that they did not want to fight the United States or be struck by American forces, and that they are letting most vessels pass through the area. He also said Iran was probably responsible for the attack on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, and said he had spoken with the crown prince after the incident.
The diplomatic activity follows a rapid Houthi advance down Yemen's Red Sea coast. Houthi forces seized Perim Island, at the narrowest point of the Bab el-Mandeb, on September 11 after Yemeni government forces withdrew a day earlier, according to four Yemeni government sources cited by Reuters. Government forces also lost the mainland town of Dhubab, directly opposite the island. The capture of the island and of the port city of Mocha completed the group's takeover of Yemen's entire Red Sea coastline, leaving Houthi forces positioned roughly 20 kilometers from the African coast.Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said general shipping in the Red Sea and the strait would be safe from attack, with the exception of vessels linked to Saudi Arabia, which the group said it would blockade. Saree described the approach as a siege-for-siege and escalation-for-escalation strategy.
Riyadh's energy infrastructure came under attack in the same period. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said Friday that the East-West pipeline had been targeted in the Riyadh and Medina areas by several drones originating from Iraq, causing injuries and material damage, and the Energy Ministry said the line was shut as a precaution. The pipeline links Abqaiq near the Gulf to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, and Riyadh has increased its use since the start of the war to bypass the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran. Iraq confirmed the drones were launched from its territory, dismissed the commander responsible for Maysan province, and temporarily closed three border crossings with Iran while investigating. Riyadh said it had chosen not to respond at this stage, at the request of the Iraqi prime minister.
The combination leaves the kingdom with both of its principal export corridors impaired at once. Caroline Rose of the Soufan Center said the Houthi hold on Perim Island and the Yemeni coastline forces shipping operators toward costlier alternatives around the Cape of Good Hope.
Tensions between Riyadh and the Houthis broke into the open in July. The group declared a maritime and aerial embargo against Saudi Arabia on July 20, ending roughly four years of relative calm that had held since a UN-brokered truce in 2022. That escalation followed Yemeni government airstrikes on the runway at Sanaa airport on July 13, carried out to prevent an Iranian aircraft from landing, after which the Houthis struck Abha airport in southern Saudi Arabia.
