US moves to redesignate Houthis as terrorist group
US President Donald Trump has launched a procedure to reclassify Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels as a terrorist group.
The Ansar Allah movement, commonly known as the Houthis, has controlled a large part of war-torn Yemen since the mid-2010s. The group was designated a terrorist organization during Trump’s first term, but the Biden administration removed the Houthis from the blacklist in February 2021, arguing that the designation impeded the delivery of humanitarian aid.
On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order instructing the secretary of state to submit a report “concerning the designation of Ansar Allah as a foreign terrorist organization.”
Since 2023, the Houthis have fired missiles at US warships “dozens of times” and launched “more than 300 projectiles” at Israel, the document states. The Houthis have also attacked oil refineries in Saudi Arabia and launched missiles and kamikaze drones at commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.
“The Houthis’ activities threaten the security of American civilians and personnel in the Middle East, the safety of our closest regional partners, and the stability of global maritime trade,” the order said.
Since October 2023, the Houthis have been targeting merchant vessels and firing ballistic missiles at Israel in protest against the war in Gaza. The US, the UK and Israel have responded by bombing Houthi-linked military sites and infrastructure in Yemen.
On Wednesday, the Houthis announced that they were releasing the crew of the Bahamas-flagged cargo ship Galaxy Leader, seized in November 2023. The 25 Mexicans, Filipinos, Romanians, Bulgarians and Ukrainians were captured when the ship was sailing from Türkiye to India, according to the BBC.
