President Trump said the U.S. would hold Iran responsible for future attacks by Houthi militants after the group fired on two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, sending oil prices skyrocketing.
"The Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves," he wrote in a social-media post Thursday.
The Houthis' military spokesman said the group targeted two Saudi oil tankers with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones in the Red Sea on Wednesday, opening a potential new front in the conflict as the U.S. and Iran traded strikes for a 12th consecutive night.
The Iran-backed rebels in Yemen said they targeted the tankers, identified as the Encelia and Layla, after accusing them of violating a naval blockade the group says it has imposed on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea.
The attacks sent oil prices racing to $100 on Thursday after the Houthis threatened to choke an important route in global oil supply and stoked fears that the U.S.-Iran conflict could escalate further.
One U.S. warship, the destroyer USS Gonzalez, is in the Red Sea, according to a U.S. official, but there is no indication that the U.S. military will engage the Houthis directly or help defend Saudi ships.
Trump last year launched a nearly two-month air campaign against the Houthis that ended with a ceasefire, leaving the Iran-backed group weakened but still capable of mounting attacks. Since the war between the U.S. and Iran erupted in February, the Houthis have largely remained on the sidelines, although they have continued sporadic attacks on commercial shipping.
"A year ago the United States of America attacked, very powerfully, the Houthis, for their interference with commerce and trade, by shooting at ships. Since that time, and during our conflict with Iran, they have acted very responsibly. Unfortunately, now they are starting up again, shooting at two Saudi Arabian ships last night," Trump wrote in Thursday's post.
The group renewed its rhetoric against Saudi Arabia last week, accusing Riyadh of striking an airstrip to prevent an Iranian aircraft from landing at San'a airport.
London Stock Exchange Group data indicates that both the Saudi-flagged ships were loaded with crude and oil products a few days ago in Yanbu, a port city that Saudi Arabia has been using to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
They were headed south toward Bab al-Mandeb, a narrow chokepoint in the Red Sea between Yemen and Djibouti.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio blamed Tehran for the Houthis' latest strikes in comments to reporters Thursday at a summit in Manila, the Philippines. "The Houthis largely were smart and stayed out of all this throughout the conflict, but they now apparently have gotten themselves suckered into this, going after Saudi Arabia and their ships," Rubio said.
The Houthis' latest attacks on shipping compounds the threat to the global oil market, which has been roiled by Iran's threats to commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. A ceasefire unraveled in recent weeks after Tehran repeatedly fired on commercial ships in the Strait and choked shipping the strategic waterway.
Trump's latest comments come as he weighs expanding the conflict with Iran. The U.S. in recent days has surged forces, medics and weaponry toward the Middle East to give the president more muscular military options, should he choose to do so, The Wall Street Journal reported. In the past week, special-operations forces have deployed to the region from their U.S. bases, squadrons of jet fighters have been staged across the Middle East, and bomber aircraft at bases in the U.S. and U.K. are on high alert.
Meanwhile, more than 150 medics arrived at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the primary location for treating troops injured in combat in the Middle East, in recent days.
U.S. forces bombarded Iranian targets on Wednesday evening, hitting Iranian military-operations centers, maritime capabilities, aircraft hangars, drone-storage facilities and military-logistics infrastructure in strikes designed to degrade Tehran's ability to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz, according to U.S. Central Command. The U.S. has also targeted bridges that it says Iran's military uses to resupply a naval base on the strait.
Earlier in the week, Trump was already ramping up his rhetoric against Iran, threatening to order strikes on Iranian infrastructure and signaling on Tuesday that he might order an assault on Pickaxe Mountain, where Iran is suspected to have buried nuclear-enrichment centrifuges.
But the Iranian regime has shown no signs of backing down, and its leaders have pledged to continue attacking U.S. forces and American partners in the Gulf. Overall, 18 U.S. troops have been killed during the conflict from enemy fire and accidents, including three during an Iranian missile barrage on Jordan last week, while hundreds more have been wounded.
Write to Gareth Vipers at gareth.vipers@wsj.com and Lara Seligman at lara.seligman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 23, 2026 12:09 ET (16:09 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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