During Tuesday's press briefing, State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked if the Houthis had agreed to the ceasefire agreement reached with the U.S.
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00:00I want to follow up on Yemen. Despite the statement by the President and the Secretary
00:05on the ceasefire and also the Al-Mani foreign minister just confirmed it, the other side,
00:09which is the Houthis themselves, denied it. They're saying that we are not going to stop
00:15attacking the ships. So how do you explain that?
00:19Well, they're a terrorist group, so, you know.
00:21Or they're saying for public consultation or what?
00:23I use, for my basis of who to listen to and who to take seriously, of course,
00:29is the President of the United States, Ambassador Witkoff, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
00:34I think that, as what we've said, of course, also when it comes to other situations,
00:39is that we look to actions, not words. And clearly there's been development here
00:45that the President shared, and I think his words are the words that one needs to rely on.
00:52And the attack on the port of Sana'a, as you know, Sana'a now is completely out of service.
00:5620 million people are affected as a result. Was this attack coordinated with the United States,
01:02or do you think this is more like a collective punishment against civilians in Yemen as well,
01:07because they won't be able to use that port anymore?
01:10It's not just for the Houthis.
01:11MS. Well, I certainly – I would refer you to the DOD regarding any questions about American action,
01:16certainly with the operations that we've had against the Houthis and the shipping issue.
01:21But I can't speak to any action, of course, that Israel may have taken, or the nature of any of that.
01:26But in regard to the rest of this, President Trump categorized this as some very good news,
01:32that the Houthis announced, again, they don't want to fight anymore and that we will honor that and stop the bombing.
01:38He said they have capitulated. And again, we had a very specific framework there, but again, I'd refer you to the DOD in regard to that.
01:46Matt Lee, interested in the subject line?
01:50Sure. I still just don't really understand what – I mean, if the Houthis have only agreed to stop attacking American vessels,
01:59and you guys have only agreed to stop attacking Houthi targets, that does not really fall into line with what Secretary Rubio has said,
02:07which is attacks on all international shipping in the Red Sea.
02:12MS. Well, it was that venue. It was that arena regarding the Red Sea and the shipping.
02:16I understand that. But if this is a deal that's just the U.S. and the Houthis, and no one else is included,
02:21and the Houthis are still going after French ships or German ships or Israeli ships or whoever,
02:27I'm not quite sure how this is anything other than you guys just saying, okay, we won, we're leaving, but terrorism and these attacks are still going wrong.
02:36Well, I don't recall those lines being used. What I can say is that Secretary Rubio said this was always a freedom of navigation issue,
02:43and of course our approach was the fact that they had struck ships hundreds of times, including our ships in that area.
02:50And this is one of the cases where we – again, a very transparent administration, a president who is speaking and will speak on what's happening,
03:00what he's planning, what we hope for, what he has heard. And I would take him at his word in that regard.
03:05Of course, Secretary Rubio was in the Oval Office at this point. I would encourage all of us – and I'm looking forward to it, too –
03:12to getting more details on the nature of how it manifested. That always, of course, interests us.
03:17We have a sense here with what Ambassador Whitcoff tweeted that Oman, of course, was involved,
03:22and that there's an understanding that this is moving forward. So we will no doubt have more information, and I think we'll have our answers when we do.
03:30Okay. And then –
03:31Yes.