Official statements by US Secretary of Defense James Mattis and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the Saudi war in Yemen were not taken for granted by Iranians, who have been anticipating a Vietnam-style quagmire for the Saudi-led coalition in the Middle East's poorest country.

"The Yemeni resistance (a term used in Iran to describe Houthi militia fighting off the Saudi war) will not give in to America's peace-seeking postures," wrote Javan, a hard-line news outlet close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Javan referred to French Defense Minister Florence Parly's comments on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen as an acknowledgment that Houthis have cornered the Saudis into a deadlock.

"The [US] call came only three days after the Yemenis unveiled their high-precision Badr P-1 ballistic missile that targeted a Saudi coalition base," the paper stated, highlighting the Shiite militia's counteroffensive capabilities. Javan lashed out at US media outlets for their failure to turn the spotlight on the plight of the Yemenis as opposed to their widespread coverage of the Oct. 2 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

In other Iranian papers, the Khashoggi crisis played central to a reading between the lines of the US cease-fire call. It is a "policy reversal," According to daily Khorasan, "It is a policy reversal [that] came after pressure mounted on Washington and its allies in the wake of revelations on the Saudi complicity in the journalist's murder." The paper criticized the United States for fanning the flames of the war with its "nonstop flow of arms to the Saudis."