As President Donald Trump weighed whether to escalate the war with Iran, the rapid advance of Houthi forces in Yemen and their attacks on Saudi Arabia threaten to draw the U.S. into a wider conflict in the region amid Riyadh’s pleas for help.
Trump, who previously vowed to destroy Iran’s “whole civilization,” told Fox News on Sunday that he was “in deciding mode” and asking himself “if and when do I blow the entire nation up?”
“They better behave,” Trump warned, saying he would be open to meeting with Iran’s president on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly this week to discuss Tehran’s demands for ending the nearly seven-month war.
Trump’s comments came hours after the State Department issued a security alert warning U.S. citizens in the Middle East to be more vigilant and to look out for potential flight cancellations, airspace closures and travel disruptions.
“Iranian-supported Houthis have engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including civilian airports,” the alert said. “This military conflict has the potential to escalate rapidly.”
Later, the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh issued an alert requiring U.S. federal employees in the country to obtain special authorization prior to any official or personal travel to the Saudi cities of Taif and Yanbu, following reports of Houthi strikes in those areas.
The alert also warned U.S. citizens in the country to stay away from glass doors and windows and to avoid any fallen debris in the case of an aerial attack. It said to monitor the news and their phones, which it said to keep charged, for official guidance.
Behind the scenes, Trump had told the Pentagon to prepare for airstrikes against the Houthis after a call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Thursday, The New York Times reported.
Saudi state media reported last week that bin Salman had also met with Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to discuss the situation in the region.
Houthi militants reignited a long-simmering war with the kingdom this summer, and as the U.S. ally’s de facto leader, bin Salman was seeking Trump’s help to curb their advances.
With U.S. military support and occasional bombing campaigns, Saudi Arabia has backed the Yemeni government’s fight against the rebels in the country’s civil war since 2014, but it reached a truce with the militants in 2022.
This summer, the rebel group declared a blockade against Saudi shipping and attacked Saudi ships. Earlier this month, the militants seized a critical port city and strategic islands in the Red Sea.
Those moves threaten to worsen international shipping and energy market disruptions already strained by months of fighting in and around the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint at the southeastern end of the Persian Gulf.
Though Trump had met with his advisers just a day before bin Salman’s call and told them he did not favor strikes against the Houthis, he reversed himself after the call, the Times reported, citing unidentified sources in the administration.
But then he reversed himself again on Sunday, when he apparently held off on the strikes against the Houthis, even as the military was poised to launch a wave of attacks, the Times reported.
Commanders had already approved target lists, and bombs were being loaded onto U.S. warplanes before the president’s decision to pull back, two people briefed on the operation told the Times.
Trump told Fox News that the U.S. is in constant communications with the Houthis, who had so far promised not to attack the U.S.
U.S. Central Command did not comment on the record regarding the aborted strikes.
“CENTCOM has a task force in place to enhance intelligence-sharing and planning support with Saudi forces,” a U.S. official said.
The militants’ seizure this month of Perim Island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, about 80 miles from the American military’s main hub in Africa at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, has raised concerns that they could strike the facility if they sought escalation.
During U.S. clashes with the Houthis in 2024, the militant group said it had a list of U.S. bases in the region that it might strike.
The Houthis have long been backed by Tehran, whose ballistic missile and drone attacks in the Middle East have left hundreds of buildings at American bases damaged or destroyed, according to U.S. officials.
If the U.S. joined the fight against the Houthis, it would accompany a planned ground attack by Yemen, though experts say the patchwork of anti-Houthi groups has been hampered by infighting, The New York Times reported.
The Houthis, on the other hand, endured over 50 days of U.S. bombardment in the spring of 2025.
Militants downed American drones and fired on Navy warships in the Red Sea despite hundreds of CENTCOM strikes that killed fighters and leaders and destroyed radar systems, air defenses and weapons storage sites before a ceasefire was reached.
