President Donald Trump said he would make the same decision to go to war with Iran again as Iran-backed Houthi forces expanded their offensive along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, Saudi Arabia struck back and oil prices climbed above $100 a barrel.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he has no regrets about launching the U.S. war with Iran, even as the conflict widened into a new Red Sea front involving Houthi forces and Saudi Arabia and growing threats to two of the world’s most important shipping corridors pushed oil prices sharply higher.
“I don’t believe in the word ‘regret.’ You can always question yourself a little bit,” Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingraham when asked whether he regretted the war and its effect ahead of the midterm elections. “If I had it do again, I would do exactly as I did.” Trump has argued that military action was necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and has said Iran otherwise could have posed an existential threat to Israel.
The president’s comments came as the Iran-aligned Houthis seized the strategic Yemeni port city of Mokha and pushed farther along the Red Sea coast toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, adding another potential chokepoint to a regional energy crisis already centered on the heavily disrupted Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia responded with airstrikes against Houthi positions in Yemen. Saudi strikes also targeted infrastructure at Mokha’s airport after the Houthis took control of the port area, extending a renewed confrontation between Riyadh and the Yemeni group.
By Thursday, Yemeni government sources said the Houthis had moved into the Hanish Islands and were pressing south toward Dhubab, located directly across the Bab el-Mandeb from Perim Island. Control of that area would place the group in a stronger position near the narrow passage connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.
The offensive has raised concerns that disruptions already affecting the Strait of Hormuz could spread more deeply into the Red Sea, where Saudi Arabia has increasingly depended on export routes as Gulf shipping has been constrained.
Iranian, Yemeni and regional sources told Reuters that members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps helped guide the Houthi offensive and that Tehran had promised additional weapons and financial support. Iran has denied directly controlling Houthi military operations.
U.S. officials also believe hundreds of IRGC officers are currently operating in Yemen alongside Houthi forces, according to CNN. More than 100 U.S. military advisers are meanwhile in Saudi Arabia providing intelligence and targeting assistance to the kingdom, the network reported.
The escalation prompted a warning Thursday from U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg, who told the Security Council that the country had entered “a new and more dangerous phase.” He said the Houthi capture of Mokha had given the group a direct presence near the approaches to one of the world’s most important maritime passages.
The expanding conflict has already reached Saudi territory. Houthi missile and drone attacks this week struck cities, military targets and energy infrastructure in southern Saudi Arabia, with Saudi authorities reporting 73 people wounded. Riyadh subsequently intensified its air campaign against Houthi targets in Yemen.
The Houthis have said commercial navigation through the Red Sea remains safe except for Saudi vessels, which the group has placed under a blockade. Saudi Arabia, however, has relied heavily on the Red Sea route as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran conflict.
The combination of threats to both waterways sent energy markets sharply higher Thursday.
Brent crude surged 6.34% to settle at $107.63 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate climbed 6.69% to $102.48. Both benchmarks reached their highest levels since May as traders reacted to tanker attacks, restricted Hormuz traffic, the Houthi capture of Mokha and threats to Saudi energy infrastructure.
The administration is simultaneously increasing pressure on Iran’s oil trade.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would continue targeting Iranian oil tankers in response to attacks on American warships and as part of Washington’s effort to restrict Tehran’s energy revenue. The administration has combined those military operations with sanctions and a continuing maritime blockade intended to isolate Iran economically.
Trump nevertheless remains publicly committed to the war.
Asked Thursday whether he would reconsider the decision that began the conflict, the president said he would not, arguing that the consequences of allowing Iran’s nuclear program to continue would have been worse.
His defense of the war now comes as fighting expands beyond the Persian Gulf. The Houthi advance in Yemen and Saudi Arabia’s response have created another active theater tied to the wider U.S.-Iran confrontation, while instability around both the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb threatens the routes used to move energy and commercial goods through the region.
For Trump, the military and economic stakes are increasingly intertwined. Oil has returned above $100 a barrel, shipping disruptions are widening and Iranian support for the Houthis has drawn Saudi Arabia more directly back into fighting in Yemen.
Yet the president’s assessment of the original decision remains unchanged.
“If I had it do again,” Trump said, “I would do exactly as I did.”
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