On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the US was re-designating Yemen’s Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” a little over a month after President Trump signed an executive order to do so.
Rubio said that in a separate move, the US will “not tolerate any country engaging with terrorist organizations like the Houthis in the name of practicing legitimate international business,” signaling the administration will pursue strong sanctions enforcement.
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.
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.
The US bombing campaign has stopped since the Houthis ceased their attacks on Israel and Red Sea shipping after the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal was reached, but the group’s leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, has vowed Ansar Allah is ready to intervene if Israel resumes its genocidal war.
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 to 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.
