CBS News reports:

President Trump’s Ukraine and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was in Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he was included in a group chat with more than a dozen other top administration officials — and inadvertently, one journalist — on the messaging app Signal, a CBS News analysis of open-source flight information and Russian media reporting has revealed.

Russia has repeatedly tried to compromise Signal, a popular commercial messaging platform that many were shocked to learn senior Trump administration officials had used to discuss sensitive military planning.

Witkoff arrived in Moscow shortly after noon local time on March 13, according to data from the flight tracking website FlightRadar24, and Russian state media broadcast video of his motorcade leaving Vnukovo International Airport shortly after. About 12 hours later, he was added to the “Houthi PC small group” chat on Signal, along with other top Trump administration officials, to discuss an imminent military operation against the Houthis in Yemen, according to The Atlantic magazine editor Jeffrey Goldberg, who was included on the chat for reasons that remain unclear.

U.S. lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, have questioned the use of the commercial communications platform for the conversation, which Goldberg revealed Monday in his own report for The Atlantic.

The National Security Council told CBS News on Monday that the group chat “appears to be authentic.” [Continue reading…]

Fatima Abo Alasrar writes:

The United States designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) took effect on March 4. This move comes after years of fruitless diplomatic efforts where international institutions treated the Houthis as legitimate partners at the negotiating table, only to be outplayed at every step. Throughout this time, the Iran-backed Houthis not only cemented their alliance with Tehran, but also expanded their war to the Red Sea and Israel continuing to pose a threat on vessels in the Red Sea. This geopolitical confidence and expansion of their military arsenal couldn’t have occurred without help from a crucial yet underestimated player: Russia.

Mohammad Abdulsalam, the chief Houthi spokesperson once courted by Western diplomats as a potential peace negotiator, was one of the seven individuals the US designated, along with six other high-ranking Houthi leaders. Abdulsalam has been quietly traveling to Moscow in his capacity as a spokesperson for the Houthi militia and under the guise of his position as a mediator for Yemen’s conflict, strengthening a relationship that benefits both the Houthis and the Kremlin.

The US sanctions specifically focus on individuals involved in weapons procurement and smuggling operations, directly addressing the group’s regionally threatening military capabilities. The targeting of Moscow-linked Houthi figures is the clearest indication yet that the group’s relationship with Russia is no longer just a matter of convenience but a calculated military alliance. These sanctions expose a supply chain of instability through a transnational weapons pipeline linking Tehran, Sanaa, and Moscow in a web of illicit arms transfers that goes beyond the Houthis’ ideological fanfare or mere opportunism.

For a movement that once claimed to be “independent,” the Houthis have instead become a tool of foreign powers, shifting from an Iranian proxy to a Kremlin asset. Russia, isolated by its war in Ukraine, recognized the Houthis’ potential as a pressure point against the West. Tehran and Moscow have long understood that armed non-state actors, when properly equipped, can shape global conflicts as effectively as standing armies. The FTO’s treasury designation’s focus on relations with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Russia makes it clear that the Houthis are not the architects of their own rise, but merely instruments in a much larger geopolitical contest. [Continue reading…]