Before US President Donald Trump announced that the Houthis had pledged to halt attacks on ships in the Red Sea, religious and political institutions in Tehran were already predicting a shutdown of navigation through the Bab al-Mandab Strait starting May 17.<\/p>\n
This prediction coincided with celebrations by senior Iranian officials over the Houthis\u2019 strike on Israel\u2019s Ben Gurion Airport, at a time when negotiations with the US were stalled after three slow rounds.<\/p>\n
The timing raises questions: does the ceasefire signal a loss of a key bargaining chip for Iran, or is it a calculated concession to improve its position ahead of resumed talks next week\u2014especially amid reports that Tehran has requested direct negotiations as part of a broader deal?<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Trump announced the Houthis had agreed to cease their attacks on Red Sea shipping, prompting the US to immediately suspend its airstrikes. Oman\u2019s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi confirmed his country brokered the agreement, ensuring safe commercial navigation in the Red Sea.<\/p>\n
A day before the truce, Ali Shamkhani, a senior member of Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council, hailed the Houthi attack on Ben Gurion as a \u201cstrategic blow\u201d and evidence that the resistance front\u2014from Lebanon and Gaza to Iraq and Yemen\u2014was now in control.<\/p>\n
Iranian newspaper Kayhan argued that the attack would strengthen Iran\u2019s position in its negotiations with the US, undermine American threats, and thwart Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu\u2019s efforts to derail diplomacy. The paper framed the strike as proof of Iran and its allies\u2019 regional influence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before US President Donald Trump announced that the Houthis had pledged to halt attacks on ships in the Red Sea, religious and political institutions in Tehran were already predicting a shutdown of navigation through the Bab al-Mandab Strait starting May 17. This prediction coincided with celebrations by senior Iranian officials over the Houthis\u2019 strike on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-news-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48106,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48105\/revisions\/48106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}