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The US state department has reinstated the “foreign terrorist organization” designation for Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi group, fulfilling an order announced by Donald Trump shortly after he took office.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, announced on Tuesday the department had restored the designation, which carries with it sanctions and penalties for anyone providing “material support” for the group.
“Since 2023, the Houthis have launched hundreds of attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as well as US service members defending freedom of navigation and our regional partners,” Rubio said in a statement. “Most recently, the Houthis spared Chinese-flagged ships while targeting American and allied vessels.”
The Houthis have targeted more than 100 merchant vessels in the critical trade corridor with missiles and drones since the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip began in October 2023. In January, the group signaled that it will limit its attacks in the Red Sea corridor to only Israeli-affiliated ships after a ceasefire began in the Gaza Strip but warned that wider assaults could resume if needed.
Trump’s first Republican administration had similarly designated the Houthis in its waning days, but the designation had been revoked by Joe Biden’s Democratic administration over concerns it would badly affect the delivery of aid to Yemen, which was considered to be facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Rubio suggested in his statement that such a concern was not an issue any more, saying that the US would no longer “tolerate any country engaging with terrorist organizations like the Houthis in the name of practicing legitimate international business”.
Besides the “foreign terrorist organization” announcement, the state department’s “Rewards for Justice” program announced that it would pay up to $15m for information that leads to the disruption of Houthi financing.
The United Nations said last month that it suspended its humanitarian operations in the stronghold of Yemen’s Houthi rebels after they detained eight more UN staffers.
The rebels in recent months have detained dozens of UN staffers, as well as people associated with aid groups, civil society and the now-shuttered US embassy in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital. None of the UN staffers have been released.
The Houthis have been fighting Yemen’s internationally recognized government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition, since 2014, when they descended from their stronghold in Saada and took control of Sana’a and most of the north.
The Saudi-led coalition entered the war in March 2015, backed at the time by the US, in an effort to restore the internationally recognized government to power.
The war has killed more than 150,000 people including civilians and combatants, and in recent years it has deteriorated largely into a stalemate.
The UN has projected that more than 19 million people across Yemen will need humanitarian assistance this year as many deal with climate shocks, malnutrition, cholera and the economic effects of war.
