In a sudden development, the United States announced its stopping against the Ansar Allah group (the Houthis) in Yemen, in exchange for the group’s suspension from targeting American ships in the region, a move that analysts say reflects an American move in isolation from Israel in some regional files.
During a press conference with Canadian Prime Minister, US President Donald Trump announced a agreement with the Houthis, which stops targeting ships in the Red Sea in exchange for the US Air Force stopping attacking the group. The US State Department also talked about the surrender of the Houthis and their unwillingness to continue fighting.
The Houthis did not comment on this announcement, but the Omani Foreign Ministry came out with a different narration from Trump’s talk, as it said that communications by Muscat with the parties concerned resulted in an understanding where each party would stop targeting the other, including American ships.
According to the Omani statement, the agreement guarantees the safety of American ships and not all ships from the Houthi strikes, nor does it stipulate the stopping of Israel from Yemeni lands.
Perhaps this prompted Israel to express its surprise at the American declaration. Indeed, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation quoted Israeli officials that they “were surprised by the Trump announcement.” Axius also quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that Washington “did not come to Tel Aviv with this step.”
The widening gap between Trump and Netanyahu
Regardless of the details of the agreement, it reveals the widening gap between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and it shows a relative shift in the American position on the conflict between Israel and the Houthis, says the professor of political science, Dr. Khalil Al -Anani.
The agreement also confirms – according to what Al -Anani said during the “Path of Events” program – that Trump is not subject to Netanyahu as former President Joe Biden was, and that he is putting the internal American accounts in mind and dealing with the files of the region.
The reason for this – Al -Anani – is that the American president is strongly supported by the “Mag” stream, which adopts complete isolation in foreign policy and exit from conflicts in the Middle East to reduce the economic cost.
Therefore, this agreement shows that Trump does not ignore the internal accounts and is dealing with Netanyahu, who is clearly trying to implicate the United States in a war with Iran, especially since it coincided with a major Israeli escalation against Yemen, says Al -Anani.
Israeli concerns
More importantly, in the opinion of the spokesman, the last agreement shows the great contrast in the position of Iran, which Trump wants to prevent only from having a nuclear weapon, while Netanyahu wants to hit it and overthrow its entire political system.
Al -Anani believes that Netanyahu stands between two options after this sudden agreement, which are to identify with Trump’s policy or enter into a clash with him, which is evident in his dealings with Gaza, which does not follow the whims of the American president.
The most dangerous from the point of view of the expert in Israeli affairs, Dr. Muhannad Mustafa, that this agreement may be an introduction to a nuclear agreement with Tehran that does not meet the security ceiling of Tel Aviv, which is to destroy the Tehran nuclear program, and without arrangement with it, because this will be a new October 7 for Netanyahu, and will hurry its political collapse.
The agreement with the Houthis – in the opinion of Mustafa – also indicates the possibility of the American position from other files in the region, such as Syria, and to take decisions on them without consulting Tel Aviv. It also reveals the contrast between Netanyahu, who considers military decisiveness a target, and Trump, who considers him a way to conclude agreements.
Israeli security dilemma
After this agreement, Israel will reduce the ability of Israel to move in the region because the United States does not prevent it from doing what it wants in Palestine, but it will not allow it to do what it wants in Iran, for example, says Mustafa.
According to the speaker, Israel will be alone for the first time in the face of the Houthis who are unable to repel their missiles and face an intelligence problem with them, as it will be obliged to strike them whenever they fired a missile or a march on it to activate its security belief, something that America was doing before this agreement.
The agreement does not represent a victory for Trump, who did not succeed in restoring navigation in general, but only American navigation, nor to the Houthis who made a concession of their exclusion, Washington ships from any attacks, including the heading of Israel or coming from it, as the researcher at the Al -Jazeera Center for Studies says Dr. Yaqa Makki.
Also, Makki does not believe that the agreement means a separation between the United States and Israel because the Israeli security interest “still represents an American priority”, but it “reflects a different way in dealing with Netanyahu demanding dealing with Trump as an employee deals with his president.”
But both sides have achieved goals from this agreement, according to Makki, because the United States came out of the dilemma of military strikes that did not achieve what Trump previously announced, and the Houthis also got rid of these strikes that affected them a lot, and celebrated their right to strike Israel while ensuring that the United States does not respond to these strikes.
Therefore, Makki believes that Israel will face a crisis in dealing with the Houthis after this agreement because they will not likely stop their attacks until they maintain the credibility of their bias to Palestine, and because the United States will not intervene again to deter them and may withdraw its aircraft carrier from the region.