US officials met Houthi representatives in Oman, Reuters reports

American officials met representatives of Yemen's Houthi movement in Oman over the weekend, according to a Reuters report relayed by Israeli outlets. Israel Hayom, citing the Reuters report, said the session took place at the US Embassy in Muscat and had not previously been disclosed, and that the news agency based its account on five sources familiar with the matter, three of whom spoke on condition of anonymity while two described the role of Oman's government as a long-standing regional mediator.

According to the sources cited in the reporting, the Houthi delegation told the Americans that it did not intend to strike vessels linked to the United States or to Israel. Ynet reported that the Houthis said they would target Saudi shipping only, and that the meeting followed the group's takeover of a stretch of Red Sea coastline giving it control over the Bab al-Mandab strait. The Israeli Telegram channel News.co.il carried the same central claim, saying sources told Reuters the Houthis had informed the Americans they had no intention of attacking Israeli and American ships.

Who the Houthis are

The Houthis are an armed movement that controls much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa. Israeli and international reporting routinely describes the group as Iran-backed, and The Jerusalem Post used that description in its account of the Oman meeting. The movement has been a party to Yemen's war against a Saudi-led coalition, and it has fired missiles and drones at targets outside Yemen, including at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea corridor.

Why Bab al-Mandab matters

Bab al-Mandab is the narrow strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. It is the southern gateway to the Red Sea, and therefore the southern approach to the Suez Canal. Cargo moving between Asia and Europe, and traffic bound for the Israeli port of Eilat on the Red Sea, passes through it. Whoever holds the Yemeni coastline at that point is in a position to threaten or interdict vessels in a waterway with no practical alternative other than the far longer route around southern Africa.

The Israeli reports place the Oman meeting in direct relation to that geography. The Israeli Arabic-affairs channel Abu Ali Express, relaying Reuters, said the meeting came a few days after the Houthis took control of Bab al-Mandab. The Israeli commentator Amit Segal's channel carried the core Reuters line on the meeting itself without further detail.

Oman as the venue

Oman sits on the eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula and has long served as a channel for contacts that other Gulf states will not host, including between Washington and Tehran and between outside powers and the Houthis. Muscat is its capital. The fact that the reported session was held inside a US diplomatic mission, rather than at an Omani venue, is one of the specific details attributed to Reuters in the Israeli coverage.

The Saudi dimension

Ynet framed the reported Houthi pledge as selective rather than general: the group said it would continue to strike Saudi vessels. Ynet also wrote that the background to the episode includes US President Donald Trump declining to come to the aid of Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman while Iran-aligned militias inflict serious damage on the Saudi oil sector. Israel Hayom's headline described Saudi Arabia as having turned to Israel for help. That Saudi-Israeli element appears in the Israeli reporting rather than in any official statement quoted in the material.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports contains an on-the-record statement from the US administration, from the Houthis or from the Omani government confirming that the meeting happened. No American or Houthi participants are named, and no agenda, duration or outcome is described beyond the reported assurance about US and Israeli shipping. There is no indication in the material of whether Israel was informed in advance or took part in any way.

The material also does not explain what the Houthi takeover of the coastline involved, whether any shipping has been affected since, or what assurances, if any, the American side offered in return. The claim about Saudi Arabia approaching Israel is not detailed anywhere in the material. All of the accounts above trace back to the same Reuters reporting based on unnamed sources, so the number of outlets carrying it does not amount to independent confirmation.