The US and Houthis in Yemen reached a deal to halt American airstrikes against the group after the Iranian-backed militants agreed to cease attacks against American vessels in the Red Sea, President Trump and Omani mediators said Tuesday.

Trump broke the news of the truce during an unrelated Oval Office meeting with Canada’s Prime Minister, surprising even his own Pentagon officials.

“They just don’t want to fight,” Trump said. “And we will honour that and we will stop the bombings. They have capitulated, but more importantly, we will take their word. They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore.”

But despite his claim of success, it remained unclear whether the US had achieved its objective of stopping the Houthis from impeding international shipping.

The Houthis themselves stopped short of declaring a full ceasefire, saying that they would continue to fight Israel. And Houthi officials and supporters swiftly portrayed the deal as a major victory for the militia and a failure for Trump, spreading a social media hashtag that read “Yemen defeats America.”

For more than a year, the Houthis have been firing projectiles and launching drones at commercial and military ships in the Red Sea in what the militia group has described as a show of solidarity with Gaza residents and with Hamas, the militant group controlling the Palestinian territory.

In mid-March, the US began striking targets to try to reopen international shipping lanes. The campaign has cost well over $1 billion, congressional officials said they learned in closed-door briefings with Pentagon officials last month. The rate of munitions used in the campaign has caused concern among some US military strategists, who are worried it could undermine readiness for a potential conflict with China.

After Trump unexpectedly broke the news of the deal between the Houthis and the US, Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, said his country had mediated the agreement.

“In the future, neither side will target the other, including American vessels, in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping,” he said on social media.

For his part, Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a senior Houthi politician, said that if the US halted its attacks on Yemen, the Houthis would halt their attacks on a smaller group.