On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order re-designating Yemen’s Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization,” a move that will impede aid deliveries to Yemen and complicate the chances of a lasting peace deal between the Saudis and the Houthis.
The FTO designation makes it a crime under US law to provide “material support or resources” to the Houthis, essentially making it illegal to deliver aid to Houthi-controlled Yemen, which is where 70% to 80% of Yemenis live.
In response to the designation, Hashem Sharafeddine, Yemen’s information minister, said the US had no right to issue the designation. “The criminal US regime, a partner in Israeli terrorism, has no right to label others as terrorists,” he said.
The previous Trump administration first designated the Houthis as both an FTO and as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists” in 2021, a move that was quickly reversed by the Biden administration over dire warnings from aid groups that it would push millions into famine.
In 2024, the Biden administration reinstated the SDGT designation on the Houthis, which makes anyone who deals with the Houthis a potential target of US sanctions, but it’s not considered as harsh as the FTO designation.
The Biden administration slapped the SDGT label back on the Houthis when it began its bombing campaign against the Yemeni group, which only escalated the situation in the Red Sea. Israeli media reported that the Trump administration may escalate the war against the Houthis, but now that a Gaza ceasefire deal has been reached, Yemeni attacks on Israel and on Red Sea shipping have ceased.
The executive order said that it’s the “policy of the United States to cooperate with its regional partners to eliminate Ansar Allah’s capabilities and operations, deprive it of resources, and thereby end its attacks on US personnel and civilians, US partners, and maritime shipping in the Red Sea.”
Besides impeding aid deliveries to a country that’s been dealing with a major hunger crisis for years, the terror designations also prevent the Saudis and the Houthis from signing a peace deal. A ceasefire between the Houthis and Saudis has held relatively well since April 2022, though there has been fighting on the ground, but no lasting deal has been implemented.
The warring sides reached an agreement that satisfied all parties, but the first phase includes the payment of Yemeni civil workers in Houthi-controlled areas, and that has been blocked by the SDGT designation.
From 2015-2022, the US supported the brutal Saudi/UAE war against the Houthis, which involved heavy airstrikes, a ground campaign, and a blockade. According to the UN, the war killed at least 377,000 people, with more than half dying of starvation and disease caused by the siege.
