DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — President Donald Trump explicitly linked the actions of Yemen’s Houthi rebels to the group’s main benefactor, Iran, warning Monday that Tehran would “suffer the consequences” for further attacks by the group.

The comments by Trump on his Truth Social website escalate his administration’s new campaign of airstrikes targeting the rebels, which killed at least 53 people this weekend. U.S. officials said the strikes focused on more than 40 targets and more airstrikes are planned in the coming days.

Iran continues to weigh how to respond to a letter Trump sent last week trying to jump-start negotiations over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program. But Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations delivered a strong rebuke Monday to Trump’s recent rhetoric about the Islamic Republic, saying Trump and U.S. officials are making “reckless and provocative statements” and threatened to retaliate if those words turn to actions.

Houthi supporters rallied in several cities Monday after the strikes, vowing revenge against America and Israel over blocking aid to Gaza in its war on Iran-backed Hamas there.

“The Yemeni position is an irreversible position (regarding Gaza), so do whatever you (Americans) want, for we are men who fear no one but God,” said Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a Houthi leader who spoke to the rally in Yemen’s rebel-held capital, Sanaa.

The United Nations called for a halt to all military activities in Yemen and the Red Sea, urging “utmost restraint” and warning that “any additional escalation could exacerbate regional tensions,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Monday.

Describing the Houthis as “sinister mobsters and thugs,” Trump warned that any attack by the group would be met with “great force, and there is no guarantee that that force will stop there.”

“Iran has played ‘the innocent victim’ of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control,” Trump alleged in his post. “They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, ‘Intelligence.’ ”

It’s unclear what sparked Trump’s post. However, the head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard sought to separate the Houthis’ actions from those of Tehran this weekend. The Houthis also launched drones and missiles targeting the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, although none reached the ship as it continues flight operations in the region.

Iran did not immediately comment on the post.

“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!” Trump wrote.

The Houthi rebels attacked over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors, from November 2023 until January this year when a ceasefire began in Gaza.

The Houthis claimed that there had been additional U.S. airstrikes overnight, although American officials did not immediately acknowledge them.

In Saada province, the Houthis’ stronghold, the rebels raided a warehouse run by the World Food Program. A member of Yemen’s exiled government first reported that the Houthis had been taking supplies from the facility without the WFP’s permission in the aftermath of the U.S. airstrikes. The United Nations agency later acknowledged the Houthis’ actions.

Yemen, at war since the Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014, has been on the precipice of famine for years. But the U.N. suspended its operations in Saada in February over security concerns following the detentions of dozens of U.N. workers. A day later, the WFP announced that one of its staffers died while imprisoned by the Houthis.