File Photo: US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz speaks with the media following meetings with a Ukrainian delegation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. AFP
The airstrikes Saturday "actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out," National Security Advisor Michael Waltz told ABC News.
"We just hit them with overwhelming force and put Iran on notice that enough is enough," he said in a separate appearance on Fox News.
He also reiterated a US warning that "all options are on the table" to prevent Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon.
The US strikes Saturday -- the first against the Yemeni rebels since President Donald Trump returned to the White House -- killed at least 31 people and wounded 101, the group's health ministry said Sunday.
The Houthis, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, staunchly oppose Israel and the United States and say the shipping attacks are to press Israel to halt its war on Gaza.
They have carried out dozens of drone and missile attacks on Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since the war began and after a short halt warned on Tuesday that they would resume attacks until Israel lifts its renewed blockade on humanitarian aid to Gaza.
US warships have been attacked 174 times and commercial vessels 145 times since 2023, according to the Pentagon, putting a major strain on a sea route that normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic.
Trump, in a lengthy Truth Social post Saturday announcing the latest attacks, warned Houthi leaders that "YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON'T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!"
Trump last month sent a letter to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proposing nuclear talks and saying that in the absence of a deal the matter could be handled "militarily."
Tehran chafed at that suggestion, saying it would not negotiate while being "threatened."
Waltz, in his ABC interview, said flatly: "Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. All options are on the table to ensure it does not have one."
He added: "They can either hand it over and give it up in a way that is verifiable, or they can face a whole series of other consequences, but either way, we cannot have a world with the ayatollahs with their finger on the nuclear button."
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