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.
And in a predictable turn of events, Viktor Bout, the infamous Russian arms dealer known as the “merchant of death” — released by then-President Biden in 2022 in exchange for WNBA player Brittany Griner — has also supplied the Houthis with weapons.
Before his release, Bout had served 12 years of a too-short 25-year prison sentence for arms dealing across the world and conspiracy to kill Americans.
It’s no coincidence that the heavily armed Houthis, while regularly attacking commercial vessels sailing under the flags of the United States and its allies, have generally refrained from shooting at Russian- or Chinese-flagged ships.
Chinese vessels are actually increasing their voyages through the Red Sea, data shows, while most commercial vessels have avoided the region since the Houthi attacks began — further highlighting the growing axis bent on weakening the United States and invading its allies.
Russian and Chinese leaders continue to return the Iranian regime’s favors: Last week, in a bid to spin up a false image as peacemakers, they defended Tehran’s nuclear program and called on the United States to drop its maximum pressure campaign against the mullahs.
Trump’s campaign to take out the Houthis and restore peaceful trade to the Middle East strikes a welcome blow against Iran’s hegemonic agenda. The revival of his first-term maximum pressure campaign does, too.
But his anti-Houthi effort must also serve as a reminder that Russia and its more powerful partner, China, are seizing opportunities to disrupt peace and to push the United States from key regions — here, by assisting an Islamist militia shooting at Americans and collaborating with the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.
Putin has a history of setting things on fire, blaming others for the tragedy and destruction, and then offering to help.
This is true of his wish to “cooperate” on Iran-caused violence in the Middle East, and it is true of Russia’s war against Ukraine, which could end today if Putin would simply order the bombing to cease and withdraw his forces.
Trump should remember that Putin is the arsonist — and until Trump makes it clear that Washington will no longer tolerate his bedlam, we should expect it to continue, duplicitous promises notwithstanding.