Donald Trump will again designate Houthis as terrorists, reversing Biden

The assaults disrupted maritime commerce in the West Asia and continued despite repeated strikes on Houthi targets by the US and UK

By John Harney

 

President Donald Trump signed an order on Wednesday that again would categorize the Houthi militant group in Yemen as a terrorist organization — nearly four years after the Biden administration revoked the designation. 

Since then, the Houthis, who are aligned with Iran, have engaged in a lengthy campaign of missile and drone attacks on cargo ships and other vessels sailing in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The attacks started after the Hamas assault on Israel and the war in Gaza began.

 

The assaults disrupted maritime commerce in the Middle East and continued despite repeated strikes on Houthi targets by the US and UK. The Houthis have also directed attacks at Israel. Last July, one of their drones hit a building in central Tel Aviv, killing a man and injuring several others.  

 

“As a result of the Biden administration’s weak policy, the Houthis have fired at US Navy warships dozens of times, launched numerous attacks on civilian infrastructure in partner nations, and attacked commercial vessels,” the White House said in a fact sheet on Wednesday evening.

 

The Houthis said this week that they will stop attacking US and UK vessels in the Red Sea area in response to the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement.

 

Trump’s executive order “directs the secretary of State to recommend the re-designation of the Houthis within 30 days.” It also calls for the State Department and the US Agency for International Development to look into the work of organizations and contractors operating in Yemen and “end its relationship with entities that have made payments to the Houthis, or which have opposed international efforts to counter the Houthis.”

 

The terrorist designation was first applied at the end of Trump’s first term. President Joe Biden revoked it in 2021, citing the risk of famine in Yemen, a country that has been engulfed by civil war since 2014. 

 

The Houthis, who were from Yemen’s north, rebelled against the United Nations-recognized government and seized the capital, Sana’a. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition then intervened on the side of the government.