The White House has said that it is moving on from recent controversy over the mistaken sharing of war plans on commercial messaging app Signal, declaring that the “case has been closed”.
Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that steps had been taken to ensure that the same scenario – which made Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic, privy to a group chat on planned US strikes on Yemen’s Houthis – was not repeated in the future. But she did not elaborate on the measures.
Leavitt said the US was “moving forward”, her statement appearing to end speculation that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who invited the journalist to the chat, and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, who shared the sensitive information, would be punished.
Democratic lawmaker Madeleine Dean accused Republicans of showing a “weakness of thought” by deflecting away from the “blunders” of the so-called Signalgate controversy.
“The Trump Administration’s mishandling of sensitive military plans was a staggering failure”, she wrote in a social media post. “Republicans have devolved into ‘ what-about-ism. ‘ It’s time for accountability. It’s time for answers”.
‘ Real pain to come ‘
As the White House attempted to close the embarrassing chapter, US President Donald Trump renewed his threats to the Houthis, targeted over attacks against Israel and Red Sea shipping lanes conducted in support of Gaza, promising to hit them “harder and harder”.
Houthi leaders have denied US claims that their capabilities have been degraded by attacks, saying that the strikes have only managed to kill civilians and administrative officials.
“The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at US ships, and we will stop shooting at you”, said Trump in a social media post. “Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran”.
Iran, for its part, responded to Trump’s previous message that it , will face heavy US bombardment , if it fails to reach a nuclear weapons deal.
“They threaten to attack us, which we don’t think is very probable, but if they commit any mischief, they will surely receive a strong reciprocal blow”, said Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of the US and its ally, Israel.
On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it had summoned a Swiss diplomat “acting as protector of US interests” to pass on a “warning note” to the US, emphasising its “firm and immediate resolve” to respond to “hostile acts”.
‘ No specific progress ‘
Trump intends to visit Saudi Arabia in mid-May to discuss a range of topics, including Russia’s three-year-old war in Ukraine, the war in Gaza and investments, according to sources cited by the Reuters news agency and Axios.
Saudi Arabia recently hosted US-mediated talks with Russia and Ukraine aimed at ending the war, but prospects of a ceasefire appeared to dim after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, lacked the legitimacy to sign a peace deal, prompting Trump to declare in an interview with NBC that he was “very angry, p***** off” with the Russian leader.
Trump added that if he were unable to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine and determined Russia was to blame, he would impose a 25 percent secondary tariff on all Russian oil.
Addressing the state of US-Russian relations on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated in comments carried by Russia’s Interfax news agency that Moscow was “working on implementing certain ideas related to Ukrainian conflict resolution”, though there was “no specific progress” to report yet.
Peskov also said Putin is still open to speaking with Trump and that a conversation could be “arranged as needed”, according to TASS news agency.
