Washington offered to Houthi international recognition in return for ensuring that the Yemeni rebel movement stops attacks on ships in the Red Sea and against Israel, a senior official of the Iran-aligned movement claimed on Monday, a claim denied by US government officials.

The Houthi official’s powerful one was recorded the day after the ballistic missile launch from the Arabian Peninsula country which for the first time it hit central Israel. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained that the movement will pay “highly” for this action.

“There are constant communications, after every operation we carry out,” assured Mohammed al-Buhaiti, a member of the Politburo of the Ansar Allah (“Supporters of God”) movement, better known by the surname of its leaders’ family, the Houthis, on television Al Jazeera network. “Communications are made either to make threats or to offer temptations, but they seem to have given up trying to achieve anything substantial in that direction,” he added.

An official in President Joe Biden’s administration told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the claim is “completely” false.

A second official, who works at the State Department, said “Houthi propaganda is rarely true or worthy of being dealt with by the media”, judging that the coverage of what they say puts “an ounce of credibility in their misinformation”.

According to Mr. Buhaiti, the US and Britain are communicating indirectly, through intermediaries, and among the threats they have made has been to further escalate the action of the US armed forces against the Houthis and other movements that are acting militarily to “support” the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The Houthis have launched dozens of attacks since November against ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, which they say were “connected” to Israel or destined for Israeli ports. They have damaged over 80 merchant ships, sunk two, captured another and killed at least three sailors.

The Houthis, at war with the internationally recognized government since 2014, have seized most of the northern part of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

In January, Washington again included the movement on its blacklist of foreign “terrorist” organizations.