Biden administration now considers Yemen’s Houthis to be terrorists

As Israel continues its assault on the Gaza Strip in a bid to destroy the Hamas movement, the Palestinian group will have some new company from a group that had come to its aid.

The Biden administration, in a return to a bit of Trump-era foreign policy, said Wednesday (Jan. 17) that it will reinstall Yemen’s Houthi movement on the list of designated terrorist groups. The Houthis, when not fighting the US and Saudi Arabia-backed Yemeni government in a nearly decade-long civil war, have been attacking ships in the crucial Red Sea shipping channel to build pressure on Israel to end its destructive military offensive.

Such a declaration will greatly isolate the Houthis from parties who don’t want to run afoul of accompanying economic sanctions.

Shipping scares

After Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, Israel launched a seemingly unending series of air strikes aimed at eliminating the group, in addition to intensifying its years-long siege of the Gaza Strip. By November 20, nearly 13,000 Palestinians had been killed in the strikes, more than 5,000 of them children. That day, Houthi rebels seized a container ship in the Red Sea and declared that “all ships belonging to the Israeli enemy or that deal with it will become legitimate targets.” (The Gaza death toll is now close to 25,000.)

They backed up their threat by launching missiles at cargo ships in the Red Sea. Shipping companies in turn began steering ships on a much longer route around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa rather than use the much faster Red Sea path. In December, the US and a coalition of other countries began “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” meant to reassure shipping interests that the Red Sea was safe. The campaign has entailed sending more naval ships and launching air strikes into Houthi-held areas of Yemen. But the Houthis have not stopped their attacks.

Off-again, on-again terrorists

This is the second time the Houthis have appeared on America’s list of designated terror groups. The first was in January 2021, at the tail end of the Trump administration. Through weapons sales and other military assistance, the US has long backed a Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting to help the internationally recognized Yemeni government retain control of the country. Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it was deeming the Houthis terrorists as part of effort to increase pressure on Iran, which has backed the Houthis in the Yemeni conflict.

But because of the fierceness of the Yemeni civil war, which has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, the Biden administration immediately reversed the designation, fearing that it would complicate much-needed aid efforts. And though the need for aid is no less acute in the“world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” as Secretary of State Anthony Blinken put it last year, the designation has returned.

“These attacks against international shipping have endangered mariners, disrupted the free flow of commerce, and interfered with navigational rights and freedoms,” Blinken said in Wednesday’s statement.

Though the Houthis have said that they will not stop their missile launches in the Red Sea until Israel’s war in Gaza is over, Blinken left the door open to taking the group off the terror list should that come to pass.