US officials met representatives of Yemen’s Houthis in Oman ‌over the weekend, Reuters reported citing five sources familiar with the matter, days after the Iran-backed militia seized a strategic stretch of the Red Sea coast in a sweeping offensive that routed Saudi-backed forces.

The meeting, which has not been made public, was held at the US Embassy in Muscat, three of the sources said on the condition of anonymity. Two sources said that Oman’s government, a longtime regional mediator, helped organise the meeting.

The Trump administration designated the Houthis a “foreign terrorist organization” in March 2025 criminalising support for the group. But Washington has negotiated ⁠with them since, reaching a ceasefire in May last year after bombing the group for two months to halt a campaign of attacks on Red Sea shipping.

President Donald Trump said on Saturday the Houthis had phoned his administration asking the United States to keep out of the Yemen war. Vice President JD Vance said on Monday the US was in direct contact with the group, without giving details.

In the meeting, which one source said took place on Sunday, the Houthis told US officials they had no intention of attacking American vessels and that they were committed to the 2025 ceasefire with the US, two sources said.

One of the sources, a Yemeni, said the militia group also said they would not attack Israeli ships or any commercial vessels, except those belonging to Saudi Arabia.

According to two of the sources, the US side was represented by embassy ‌personnel.

One of ⁠those sources said the Houthi delegation included a senior official based in Muscat who is under US sanctions, Mohammad Abdulsalam. Another source confirmed Abdulsalam’s presence along with that of another senior Houthi official, Abdelmalik al-Ajiri.

Responding to questions, a State Department spokesperson said: “We have no comment on this specific reported meeting.”

The spokesperson also said safeguarding freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and preventing the export of terrorism from the Middle East were core US interests.

Oman’s embassy in the US ⁠and senior Houthi official Abdulsalam did not respond to requests for comment.

The Houthis last week seized effective control of Yemen’s entire Red Sea coastline, including the historic port of Mocha, and Perim Island in the Bab el-Mandeb, or “Gate of Tears” strait, at the sea’s mouth.

The Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital in 2014, have fought ⁠against a Saudi-led coalition for more than a decade. The war had quietened under a ceasefire in recent years, but fighting resumed in July when the Houthis declared a blockade on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea in response to a Saudi blockade of Yemeni ports.

Saudi Arabia’s de ⁠facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Trump last week seeking US military support amid the dramatic Houthi advances. Reuters has reported that Washington told Riyadh it would not get directly involved.

Saudi Arabia has accused Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement of attempting to launch a drone attack toward Mecca, declaring the holy city a “red line,” while the Houthis have denied carrying out the attack.

Saudi authorities said the drone was intercepted and destroyed before it entered the airspace over Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. The Houthis denied launching drones toward the city.

The reported incident has drawn condemnation from several countries and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which said any attempt to target the holy sites violates their sanctity.

Saudi-led coalition spokesperson Col. Turki al-Maliki said the incident was the second alleged Houthi attempt to target Mecca, following a ballistic missile launch toward the city in 2017.

The development comes as Saudi Arabia faces renewed security pressures linked to the wider regional conflict. The Houthis have also carried out attacks against Saudi infrastructure and shipping in the Red Sea, according to the report.

Turkey and Pakistan say no Saudi request for military support

Saudi Arabia’s recently announced defense cooperation with Turkey and Pakistan has not been activated in response to the reported incident.

Officials from Turkey and Pakistan told The Associated Press that Riyadh had not requested military assistance. A Turkish official said efforts to establish the alliance’s operational framework still need to be completed.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the reported attack and said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia stand “shoulder to shoulder.”

Houthis claim they shot down Saudi fighter jet

The Houthis later claimed they had shot down an F-15 fighter jet operated by the Saudi-led coalition over Yemen’s central Marib province.

Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree provided no details on when the incident allegedly occurred. The Associated Press said it could not independently verify the claim.

U.S. officials have indicated that Washington does not currently intend to become directly involved in the conflict. President Donald Trump said the Houthis had indicated they did not want to fight the United States, while Vice President J.D. Vance said Washington remained in contact with both Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was visiting China, with discussions expected to include the regional conflict and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Arab states in the Gulf called off a meeting with Iran planned for Monday, while Yemen’s Houthis launched a new attack on Saudi Arabia after fighting that has extended the Middle East war ​to another theatre and further jeopardised global oil supplies.

The Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen said they fired dozens of missiles and drones on Monday at a Saudi military ‌airbase in Khamis Mushait, near the border, hitting aircraft hangars, radar systems, runways and ammunition depots. They described the attack as retaliation for hundreds of Saudi airstrikes on Yemen in recent days, Reuters reported.

Saudi authorities announced brief emergency alerts there and in three other southern cities which have previously come under Houthi fire.

The Houthis launched a lightning advance last week in Yemen, culminating in the seizure of an island in the mouth of the Red Sea on Friday. A separate ​attack that day, which Riyadh blamed on Iran-backed fighters in Iraq, knocked out Saudi Arabia’s east-west pipeline, the main route for Middle East oil bypassing the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

OIL ​PRICES JUMP

Crude oil prices rose more than 3% on Monday, when the market reopened after the weekend, while the politically sensitive average retail price of diesel ⁠in the United States hit a new all-time high above $6.23 a gallon.

Traders say the closure of the Saudi pipeline could cut off as much as 4% of global oil supply unless it is reopened ​within days. Images from space show sections of the pipeline damaged by blazes. Riyadh has not given a firm estimate for how long it will be shut.

Oman had been due to host a meeting ​on Monday with Iran and Gulf states to discuss negotiations aimed at reopening Hormuz, the world’s most important oil shipping lane, largely closed since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February.

But Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi announced overnight that the meeting had been postponed “in the interests of consensus”. Iran said the postponement was at the request of Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, Iran issued a list of 77 ships it said had violated its ​protocols for operating in the Strait of Hormuz. Any ship on the list would face “restrictions on future passages, including fines, detention, or confiscation”, and other ships that assisted them by accepting transfers of ​cargo would be added to the list.

EXPANSION OF WAR TO YEMEN POSES DILEMMA FOR TRUMP

The upsurge of fighting in Yemen poses a dilemma for Washington, which is under pressure to aid its Saudi allies but anxious not ‌to expand ⁠the costly war to a new theatre.

Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition battling the Houthis for more than a decade, after the mountain fighters captured Yemen’s capital in 2014. The war there had largely been quiet under a ceasefire for the past few years, but fighting has now resumed, with the Houthis driving back forces from a Saudi-backed government based in the south.

Thousands of Yemenis have fled inland from the coast to escape fighting as the Houthis swept into cities including the historic Red Sea port of Mocha last week.

Aisha Muhammad, an elderly woman burning twigs to heat a kettle in government-held territory ​near Taiz, told Reuters she had left behind ​two daughters and three sons who had ⁠been unable to escape.

“They can’t even go out to the market to get food and drinking water. They are being blocked and shot at, so they are trapped inside their homes,” she said. “They cannot reach us, and we cannot return to them. This is a trial from God.”

On Friday the ​Houthis captured Perim Island, inside the Bab el-Mandeb, the “Gate of Tears” strait, at the mouth of the Red Sea.

U.S. President Donald Trump is under ​pressure to end the war ⁠to relieve the global energy shortage and lower prices that are hurting the fortunes of his Republican Party ahead of mid-term elections in November.

Three sources have told Reuters that Washington has so far rebuffed pleas from Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to intervene in Yemen. Trump confirmed over the weekend that he had spoken to the prince, and said the Houthis had also phoned asking Washington to keep out ⁠of the dispute.

The ​United States bombed the Houthis in 2025 for two months, but Trump called off that campaign after reaching a ceasefire ​with the group, which he said had promised not to attack ships in the Red Sea.

Trump, who attended a golf tournament at one of his resorts in Ireland, said he expected the Iran war to end shortly after the elections in ​November, after which the price of oil would “drop like a rock”.