Washington — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that U.S. airstrikes in Yemen on the Iran-backed Houthi rebels are targeting the group’s ability to strike global shipping and attack the U.S. military, and are “doing the world a favor.”
“We’re doing the entire world a favor by getting rid of these guys and their ability to strike global shipping. That’s the mission here, and it will continue until that’s carried out,” Rubio said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
President Trump announced the strikes Saturday, saying the U.S. would use “overwhelming lethal force” until the Houthis cease shipping attacks. U.S. Central Command confirmed the strike in a social media post Saturday, and it’s prepared to extend the campaign on the Houthis from the air and the sea for potentially weeks depending on reaction from the Houthis and Iran, a U.S. official told CBS News.
Mr. Trump in January signed an executive order re-designating the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization. Mr. Trump had designated the Houthis as a terrorist organization in Jan. 2021, but former President Joe Biden removed the designation shortly afterward due to limitations it would place on delivering humanitarian aid to Yemen, although the Biden administration went on to label the group as a “Specially Designated Global Terror Group” in 2024.
Saturday’s strikes came as the Houthis out of Yemen have been disrupting transit in an important Red Sea transit point for global shipping for months, and the group said earlier this week that it would resume attacks on Israeli ships in response to Israel’s blockage of aid to Gaza. The U.S., Israel and the United Kingdom have previously hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen, but Rubio said that while the Biden administration responded to previous attacks with retaliatory strikes, the new strikes are “not a one off.”
“This is not a message,” Rubio said. “This is an effort to deny them the ability to continue to constrict and control shipping.”
The secretary of state said that over the last 18 months, the Houthis have “struck or attacked 174 Naval vessels of the United States,” along with 145 attacks on commercial shipping.
“So we basically have a band of pirates, you know, with guided precision anti-ship weaponry and exacting a toll system in one of the most important shipping lanes in the world,” Rubio said. “That’s just not sustainable.”
Asked how long the campaign will last, Rubio said it will continue until the Houthis “no longer have the capability to do that.” He also acknowledged that he’s heard no talk of ground raids so far and doesn’t think there’s “a necessity for it right now.”
Rubio said as of Saturday night, “some of the key people involved in those missile launches are no longer with us,” adding that “some of the facilities that they use are no longer existing, and that will continue.”
“We’re not going to have people sitting around with the missiles attacking the U.S. Navy,” Rubio said. “It’s not going to happen. Not under President Trump.”
