Trump warns Houthi rebels not to block Red Sea ports and grapples with Hezbollah in Lebanon meeting

By Vaughn Cockayne and Tom Howell Jr. - The Washington Times - Tuesday, July 21, 2026

President Trump met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to wind down fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and threatened to bomb Houthi rebels in Yemen if they enforce a blockade in the Red Sea.

Mr. Trump, speaking from the Oval Office, said the U.S. dealt with previous threats from the Houthis, an Iran-backed terrorist faction, and will act again if shipping is threatened.

“So far, it hasn’t happened. Might happen. But we take care of things,” Mr. Trump said. “If something like that happens, we take care of it. You know, we’ve done that with the Houthis before, and we haven’t heard from them in a while.”

Mr. Trump warned the Houthis not to upset oil traffic on a pivotal day for Middle East peace.

The president and Mr. Aoun are working to implement a June agreement between Israel and Lebanon that called for a phased-in withdrawal of Israeli troops, who riddled Lebanon in response to Hezbollah attacks.

“They’re in the process of doing that. They’re in the process of redeploying,” Mr. Trump said of Israeli forces.

Under the deal, Israeli withdrawal from “pilot” areas must be accompanied by the disarmament of Hezbollah by the Lebanese armed forces.

The Lebanese leader thanked Mr. Trump for negotiating the framework with the “ultimate objective of ending the state of hostility between Israel and Lebanon forever.”

“This will be your legacy,” Mr. Aoun told Mr. Trump. “Together, we will be able to achieve this objective.”

Hezbollah is a Shiite terrorist group that acts as a political party and an Iran-backed proxy in Lebanon.

Thousands of Lebanese have been killed in recent fighting, which began this year alongside the U.S. war on Iran to prevent Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon.

Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has complicated the pursuit of a broader Mideast peace.

Iran is upset about Israel’s assault and says its withdrawal from Lebanon must be part of a broader deal.

While Mr. Trump tried to corral the Hezbollah problem, the Iran-backed Houthis created a separate headache by threatening key shipping lanes that serve as an alternative to the contested Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman.

The Houthis occupy much of Yemen’s southwestern territory and maintain effective control over the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a choke point in the southern part of the Red Sea.

The Houthis previously announced a blockade in the Red Sea in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks.

The U.S. launched retaliatory strikes in Yemen to stop that blockade and reached an agreement with Houthi leaders to halt their attacks on U.S. vessels.

The Houthis have not enacted their latest announced plans, but their threat seems to be having an impact, with shipping trackers reporting that at least two tankers made U-turns near the Bab al-Mandeb chokepoint before aiming for the Suez Canal to the north.

U.S. attacks on Houthi strongholds in Yemen would mark a major expansion of the Iran war, which has devastated the Middle East since late February. In addition to Israel, Gulf states such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman have been hit by Iranian missiles and drones since the war began.

Iraq, Jordan and Syria also have come under fire from Iran for hosting U.S. military assets, which Iranian officials assert are legitimate targets in the war.

The Kuwaiti Foreign Affairs Ministry said it summoned Iran’s ambassador Tuesday to protest Iranian attacks late Monday on a Kuwaiti tanker, the Kifan, while the ship transited the Strait of Hormuz.

Several crew members were injured, the ministry said.

Mr. Trump projected confidence Tuesday despite myriad challenges in the Middle East. He said Iran is “getting decimated” and faces pressure to cut a peace deal.

“They want to desperately meet. Until they’re ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest [in meeting],” Mr. Trump said. “We are doing very well. We are degrading them at levels that nobody thought was possible. They’re being degraded really so seriously.”

The president launched the assault on Iran on Feb. 28, killing top Iranian leaders and destroying a swath of Iran’s military infrastructure.

Tehran retaliated by constraining oil traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting energy markets and causing headaches for shipping companies.

“The costs of this war have been astronomical,” Sen. Patty Murray, Washington Democrat, said at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. “And what has it been for? What has actually been achieved?”

Mr. Trump says economic costs from the war will be worth preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. He said he can weather midterm-season political pressure, too.

“I’m just going to do the right thing,” he said. “I don’t view it as, ‘Gee, we’re having an election in a period of time.’”

Mr. Trump strongly hinted the U.S. would be striking an underground nuclear facility known as Pickaxe Mountain.

“We’ll be hitting that area very probably pretty soon,” Mr. Trump said. “There’s not a thing they can do about it. You know, normally I wouldn’t say that. If I thought they could do something about it, I would never say that. But we’ll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily.”

Also Tuesday, the Pentagon identified the soldier killed in Iraq during a controlled detonation of a downed Iranian drone as Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Defense Department officials said Sgt. Swinton was killed Sunday while “supporting overseas contingency operations” at Erbil Air Base in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

“The incident is under investigation,” Pentagon officials said.

The base and a nearby U.S. Consulate have been the target of multiple drone attacks by Iran and its militia factions. The base serves as the central operational hub for U.S. personnel in northern Iraq.

Sgt. Swinton was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, when he deployed to Iraq.

Two other U.S. soldiers — 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas — were killed by Iranian strikes in Jordan over the weekend.

Mr. Trump said he planned to travel to Delaware this week to watch the dignified transfer of the soldiers’ remains.

“We’re going to be going and paying our respects in Dover,” Mr. Trump said Tuesday.

• Mike Glenn contributed to this report.