US Officials Held Undisclosed Talks With Houthi Representatives in Oman as Yemen Fighting Escalates

US officials held previously undisclosed talks with representatives of Yemen's Houthi movement in Oman over the weekend, according to five sources familiar with the matter cited by Reuters, days after the Iran aligned group seized a strategic stretch of Yemen's Red Sea coast.

What happened at the meeting

The meeting took place Sunday at the US Embassy in Muscat, according to three of the five sources, with Oman, a longtime regional mediator, helping organize the talks according to two sources. US embassy personnel represented Washington, while the Houthi delegation included senior official Mohammed Abdulsalam, who remains under US sanctions, and Abdul Malik al Ajiri. According to Reuters, the Houthis told US officials they had no intention of attacking American vessels and remained committed to the ceasefire reached with Washington in May 2025 following a two month US bombing campaign.

A pledge that pointedly excludes one country

In a significant assurance, the Houthis told US officials they would not attack American or Israeli vessels, or other commercial shipping, while specifically excluding Saudi ships from that pledge, according to Reuters. That exclusion matters directly because the Houthis have been engaged in an intensifying war against Saudi backed forces inside Yemen, and Saudi warplanes have escalated strikes against Houthi positions as the group has consolidated the territorial gains from what multiple outlets described as a lightning offensive.

How Washington and the Houthis have described the contact publicly

The talks have been acknowledged only obliquely in public. President Trump said Saturday that the Houthis had called his administration asking Washington to stay out of the Yemen war. In contrast, Vice President JD Vance said Monday the US was in direct contact with the group without elaborating further. The State Department did not confirm the Oman meeting when asked, with a spokesperson saying only that safeguarding freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and preventing the spread of terrorism from the Middle East remained core US interests.

The pressure from Riyadh that Washington is resisting

The backdrop to the talks is a rapidly escalating conflict between the Houthis and Saudi backed Yemeni government forces. The Houthis have swept through towns along Yemen's Red Sea coast in recent days, seizing the historic port city of Mocha and Perim Island in the Bab el Mandeb Strait, giving the group effective control of Yemen's entire Red Sea coastline according to multiple outlets. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Trump last week seeking direct US military support as the Houthi advance accelerated, according to Reuters. Still, Washington told Riyadh it would not become directly involved in the fighting.

Why Washington is trying to hold two positions at once

The dynamic places the United States in a genuinely difficult position. Axios reported that the Muscat meeting focused on maintaining the existing US Houthi ceasefire and ensuring the Bab el Mandeb Strait remains open to shipping. At the same time, Washington simultaneously avoids being drawn into Saudi Arabia's separate war against the same group. The US has hardened its own travel guidance for personnel in Saudi Arabia as a result, barring government staff from approaching within 20 miles of the Yemeni border, according to Israel Hayom's reporting on the escalation.

What remains genuinely uncertain

This entire account rests on anonymous sourcing, and several details remain unconfirmed independently. Neither Abdulsalam nor Oman's embassy in Washington responded to requests for comment reported by outlets covering the story, and the State Department has not confirmed the meeting occurred at all, only characterizing US interests in general terms. The durability of the Houthis' verbal assurance not to target American or Israeli shipping, given without any confirmed written agreement, is also untested, and the group's continued and escalating war against Saudi forces means the wider regional conflict is intensifying even as this narrower channel between Washington and the Houthis appears to be holding for now.