Latest / The President's Daily Brief / PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 16th, 2026: Inside America’s Secret Meeting With the Houthis & Attacks on U.S.-Bound Tankers

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PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 16th, 2026: Inside America’s Secret Meeting With the Houthis & Attacks on U.S.-Bound Tankers · The President's Daily Brief

0:00
Hey,
0:00
Mike Baker here.
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Now,
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0:38
It's Wednesday,
0:39
the 16th of September.
0:40
Welcome to the PDB
0:42
afternoon bulletin.
0:43
I'm Mike Baker,
0:43
your eyes and ears on the world stage.
0:46
Alright,
0:47
let's get briefed.
0:48
First up,
0:48
new details are emerging about a secret US meeting
0:52
with the Houthi rebels held just as fighting between the militants
0:56
and Saudi Arabia has been escalating.
0:58
I'll have the details
1:00
later in the show.
1:00
The US is investigating cyber attacks
1:03
on oil and LNG tankers headed for American ports,
1:08
with officials
1:09
looking at whether or not Iran is behind the attacks.
1:13
But first,
1:13
today's afternoon bulletin.
1:16
We're learning today that US officials quietly sat down
1:19
with representatives of Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis over the weekend,
1:23
holding a secret meeting at the American embassy in Oman
1:26
just days after the group launched a major offensive along Yemen's Red Sea coast.
1:32
Reuters says the meeting took place in Muscat with Omani representatives
1:36
helping to arrange the talks.
1:38
On the Houthi side
1:39
were two senior officials,
1:40
including Mohammed Abdul Salam,
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the
1:43
group's chief negotiator,
1:44
who's currently under US sanctions.
1:46
The American delegation was reportedly made up of embassy personnel.
1:50
The State Department has not confirmed that the meeting took place,
1:54
and what the Houthis reportedly told Washington is,
1:57
well,
1:58
rather interesting.
1:59
According to Reuters,
2:00
the group said it has no intention of attacking American vessels
2:04
and remains committed to the ceasefire that it reached with the US last year.
2:08
One source said the Houthis also pledged not
2:11
to attack Israeli ships or other commercial vessels,
2:14
with one important exception,
2:16
and that would be vessels owned or linked or otherwise associated
2:19
with Saudi Arabia.
2:21
In other words,
2:22
the Houthis appear to be telling Washington that they
2:24
have no interest in reopening their fight with the US
2:28
even as they prepare for a much larger confrontation with Saudi Arabia.
2:32
Of course,
2:33
not to point out the obvious,
2:34
I think I'm about to,
2:36
but the Houthis are essentially an Iranian regime proxy.
2:39
The IRGC
2:41
has supplied the Houthis over the years with weapons,
2:44
training,
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munitions,
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guidance,
2:45
and other support.
2:47
What benefits the Houthis benefits the Iranian regime.
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Credible reporting has noted that IRGC commanders are based in Yemen,
2:55
providing support to the Houthis.
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The Houthis' meeting with the US was in all likelihood directed by the IRGC.
3:04
Keeping the US out of any confrontation allows the Houthis
3:07
to strengthen their position against the Saudi-backed Yemeni forces,
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which,
3:11
as mentioned by definition,
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strengthens the Iranian regime's position.
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Now there had already been signs that some kind of contact was underway.
3:20
President Trump said Saturday that the Iran-backed Houthis had reached out to his
3:24
administration asking the US to stay out of the renewed fighting in Yemen.
3:29
Vice President JD Vance then said Monday that
3:31
Washington was in direct contact with the group
3:34
without offering details.
3:36
Over the past week,
3:37
Houthi forces have swept through positions held
3:39
by Saudi-backed forces along Yemen's western coast.
3:42
They've taken effective control of nearly the
3:45
entire Yemeni coastline along the Red Sea,
3:48
including the historic port of Mocha
3:50
and seized territory on Pere Island inside the Babelmandeb Strait.
3:55
That
3:55
puts the Houthis in an even stronger position
3:58
around one of the most important shipping choke points in the world.
4:02
And Saudi Arabia is now responding with force.
4:05
Officials with the Saudi-backed Yemeni government
4:07
say Saudi and Yemeni aircraft have stepped up strikes on Houthi positions.
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The Houthis claim Saudi Arabia has carried out hundreds of air strikes this week,
4:16
though that number has not been independently confirmed.
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Meanwhile,
4:20
the Houthis have repeatedly launched missiles and drones into Saudi Arabia.
4:24
On Monday,
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Saudi officials said 13 civilians were wounded in Houthi attacks.
4:29
And on Tuesday Riyadh
4:30
said its air defenses intercepted a Houthi drone south of Mecca
4:34
before it entered restricted airspace
4:37
over Islam's holiest city.
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The Houthis deny that they were targeting Mecca and
4:41
accused Saudi Arabia of using the incident for propaganda.
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Saudi officials say
4:46
any threat to the holy city
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crosses a red line.
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And all of this leaves Washington in an unusual and difficult position.
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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called President Trump last week
4:58
seeking American military assistance against the Houthis.
5:01
He also met Monday with CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper in Jeddah,
5:06
but so far US support has reportedly been limited to intelligence assistance,
5:11
and Washington has declined to directly join the Saudi military campaign.
5:16
So at nearly the same moment that Saudi Arabia
5:18
is asking Washington for more help fighting the Houthis,
5:22
American officials are quietly meeting with the Houthis and receiving
5:25
assurances that they don't want to fight the US,
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which again,
5:29
not to beat a dead horse,
5:30
plays into the hands of the Iranian regime.
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And there's another reason Washington is watching all of this closely,
5:36
and that would be
5:37
oil.
5:38
Saudi Arabia has been relying heavily on its east-west pipeline
5:42
to move crude from its Gulf oil fields to the Red Sea,
5:45
allowing tankers to
5:46
bypass the disrupted and disputed Strait of Hormuz.
5:50
But that pipeline was knocked offline last week,
5:53
forcing Riyadh
5:54
to suspend crude loadings at Yanboom and cancel some shipments to Europe
5:58
now.
6:00
At the other end of that route,
6:01
the Houthis
6:02
have strengthened their position
6:04
around the Bab al Mandeb.
6:06
So Saudi Arabia is facing pressure at both ends of the system
6:09
that it needs to get oil
6:11
to the global markets,
6:12
Hormuz to the east
6:14
and the Red Sea route to the west.
6:17
The White House
6:18
appears to believe that staying out of the
6:20
conflict between the Saudis and the Houthis will somehow
6:23
keep the conflict contained
6:25
or somehow is not connected to the current US war with Iran
6:29
or somehow
6:30
won't negatively impact already shaky and destabilized global energy markets.
6:36
The reality is if the Houthis are able
6:38
to continue their gains against the Yemeni government forces
6:41
and cement their control over the critical Baba Mandeb Strait.
6:45
While the Iranian regime maintains what is essentially
6:47
pseudo control over the Strait of Hormuz,
6:50
the US and regional allies
6:52
will be facing a much larger problem in the near term.
6:57
Alright,
6:57
coming up next,
6:58
federal investigators are investigating cyber attacks on oil
7:01
and LNG tankers bound for the US.
7:04
I'll be right back.
7:05
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Welcome back to the PDB
9:34
afternoon bulletin.
9:35
We've spent much of the war with Iran talking about dangers surrounding commercial
9:39
vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.
9:43
Now Washington is investigating a very different threat
9:46
after two tankers headed for US ports
9:49
were hit by cyberattacks near Europe.
9:51
The attacks happened in early August as the two vessels
9:54
were making their way through the Strait of Gibraltar,
9:56
the narrow passage
9:58
connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean.
10:01
To be clear,
10:02
it's not understood yet,
10:03
at least as far as the authorities have revealed,
10:06
who was responsible for the attacks.
10:08
One of the vessels was loaded with crude oil.
10:10
The other
10:11
was an LNG tanker.
10:13
And following the cyber attacks,
10:15
once the vessels had reached the Gulf of Mexico
10:17
or Gulf of America,
10:19
depending on which map you look at,
10:20
specialized Coast Guard personnel boarded the tankers alongside FBI agents
10:25
to make sure the cyber attacks had not left the ships compromised.
10:29
As they approached American ports and waterways,
10:32
we're now learning that these boardings happened late last month.
10:35
According to the Coast Guard and FBI,
10:37
investigators already had indications that the networks
10:40
aboard both vessels had been compromised.
10:43
So the teams examined their operational and information technology systems
10:47
in order to make sure that they were still secure.
10:49
These ships depend on integrated systems for navigation,
10:53
propulsion,
10:54
and other critical functions.
10:56
If you get far enough inside those systems,
10:58
an attacker could potentially shut down an engine or cause a crew
11:01
to lose control of the vessel,
11:04
but the potential danger is only part of what's getting Washington's attention.
11:07
There's also
11:08
where these attacks happened.
11:09
Roughly 300 vessels pass through the Strait of Gibraltar every day,
11:14
making it,
11:14
of course,
11:15
another critical artery for global energy markets.
11:18
Officials in Washington told the Wall Street Journal
11:21
they're concerned that the cyber attacks could represent
11:23
an attempt by Iran or another American adversary
11:27
to widen the conflict that already exists.
11:30
According to the journal,
11:31
the location of the attacks
11:32
and the US destination for the vessels
11:35
are raising concerns that the attacker may have
11:37
been either trying to disrupt a critical choke point
11:40
or target an American port.
11:42
As an aside,
11:43
the Coast Guard does have specialized teams trained for maritime cyber attacks,
11:48
including teams used
11:49
earlier this year
11:51
to inspect Shadow Fleet vessels that had been seized by the US
11:55
And that my friends,
11:56
is the PDB
11:57
afternoon bulletin for Wednesday,
11:58
the 16th of September.
12:00
If you have any questions or comments,
12:01
and I hope you do,
12:02
just
12:02
reach out to me at PDB@tv.com
12:06
and to listen to the show ad-free,
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12:15
I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back tomorrow.
12:17
Until then,
12:18
stay informed,
12:19
stay safe,
12:20
stay cool.
12:35
Hey,
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Mike Baker here.
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