Trump is striking the Houthis while Putin keeps enflaming them

When President Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week about a Ukraine cease-fire, Europe wasn’t the only region on the agenda: The two also discussed cooperating in the Middle East “to prevent future conflicts” and ensure “Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel.”But Trump doesn’t need Putin’s help to solve the conflicts in the Middle East or Iran — he needs Putin to stop enflaming them.The robust US campaign to take out the Yemen-based Houthis, who have been terrorizing commercial shipping, is long overdue after years of the Biden administration’s lethargy.The Houthis are a well-armed radical Islamist group that brandishes the slogan “God is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse be upon the Jews, Victory to Islam.”They have successfully disrupted the Red Sea’s major artery for global trade by attacking American and US-ally ships — claiming to do so in solidarity with Hamas’ murderous Oct.7 assault, and to compel the United States to abandon the Middle East.Trump this week correctly identified Iran as the Houthis’ primary patron.

“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN,” he wrote Monday on Truth Social, threatening to hold the mullahs responsible for such attacks.But the Houthis have another supporter: Russia.Along with Russia’s ongoing role as a weapons buyer and provider to the Tehran regime, Moscow also supplies weapons to the Houthis and Iran’s other terrorist proxies.In return, Iran has shipped hundreds of ballistic missiles to Russia to fuel its war effort in Ukraine.The Kremlin has also given the Houthis satellite targeting data, according to reports, aiding their strikes against US military assets and commercial shipping.The Yemen-based terrorists claim to have downed 14 US drones since November 2023, and have struck dozens of Western-flagged commercial ships.An...