Pentagon lays out goals for Yemen strikes after Trump warns Iran not to intervene
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell stressed that the US has a "moral obligation to have a clear-cut end-state" for combat operations abroad, as well as "a clear exit strategy," but also said the US strikes would not stop until the Houthis halt their own attacks.
WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials on Monday sought to preempt concerns that the Trump administration's renewal of US airstrikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels could become another open-ended military campaign in the Middle East, while also warning Iran not to get involved.
In a briefing with reporters on Monday, Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the director of operations on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, said the military’s objectives in the expanded strike campaign were to “restore freedom of navigation and American deterrence” in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
“We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective,” the department’s top spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said alongside Grynkewich in the first on-record briefing at the Pentagon under Trump’s second term.
“This is also not an endless offensive. This is not about regime change in the Middle East; this is about putting American interests first,” Parnell added.
