United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday designated the Houthis as a “foreign terrorist organization” after attacks on transport ships in the Red Sea.
Biden had removed the label when he took office in 2021, before later designating the Houthis as a group, a less harsh classification.
There are three differences in the labels:
- Federal law makes it a crime to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, making the group off-limits to banks and other businesses.
- Members of foreign terrorist organizations cannot be admitted to the United States.
- Victims of the group’s attacks can take legal action against it and the entities that support it.
“Under President Trump, it is now the policy of the United States to cooperate with its regional partners to eliminate the Houthis’ capabilities and operations, deprive them of resources, and thereby end their attacks on U.S. military personnel and civilians, U.S. partners, and transportation maritime in the Red Sea,” the White House said when announcing the new designation.
The White House said Trump was directing the U.S. Agency for International Development to “end its relationships with entities that have made payments to the Houthis, or that have opposed international efforts to combat the Houthis, while turning a blind eye to terrorism and abuses” of the group.
Forced some of the world’s largest shipping and oil companies to suspend transit through one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes.
Who are the Houthis?
The Houthi movement, also known as Ansarallah (Supporters of God), is one side of the Yemeni civil war that has lasted almost a decade. It emerged in the 1990s, when its leader, Hussein al-Houthi, launched “Youth Who Believes”, a religious revival movement for a secular subsect of Shiite Islam called Zaidism.
The Zaidis ruled Yemen for centuries but were marginalized under the Sunni regime that came to power after the 1962 civil war. The Al-Houthi movement was founded to represent the Zaidis and resist radical Sunniism, particularly Wahhabi ideas from Arabia. Saudi. His closest followers became known as the Houthis.
How did they gain power?
Ali Abdullah Saleh, the first president of Yemen after the unification of North and South Yemen in 1990, initially supported Youth Who Believe. But as the movement’s popularity grew and anti-government rhetoric increased, it became a threat to Saleh. Things came to a head in 2003, when Saleh supported the US invasion of Iraq, which many Yemenis opposed.
For al-Houthi, the rupture was an opportunity. Taking advantage of public outrage, he organized mass demonstrations. After months of disorder, Saleh issued a warrant for his arrest.
Al-Houthi was killed in September 2004 by Yemeni forces, but his movement survived. The Houthi military wing has grown as more fighters have joined the cause. Emboldened by the first Arab Spring protests in 2011, they took control of the northern province of Saada and called for an end to the Saleh regime.
Do the Houthis control Yemen?
Saleh agreed in 2011 to hand over power to his vice president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, but that government was no longer popular. The Houthis struck again in 2014, taking control of parts of Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, before finally storming the presidential palace early the following year.
Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia, which launched a war against the Houthis at his request in March 2015. What was expected to be a quick campaign lasted years: a ceasefire was finally signed in 2022. It expired six months later, but the warring parties did not return to full-scale conflict.
The United Nations said the war in Yemen has become the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Nearly a quarter of a million people were killed during the conflict, according to UN statistics.
Since the ceasefire, the Houthis have consolidated their control over most of northern Yemen. They also sought an agreement with the Saudis that would permanently end the war and consolidate their role as rulers of the country.
Who are your allies?
The Houthis are backed by Iran, which began increasing its aid to the group in 2014 as the civil war escalated and its rivalry with Saudi Arabia intensified. Iran has provided the group with weapons and technology for, among other things, sea mines, ballistic and cruise missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones), according to a 2021 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The Houthis are part of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance” – an Iran-led anti-Israeli and Western alliance of regional militias backed by the Islamic Republic. Along with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis are one of three prominent Iranian-backed militias that have launched attacks against Israel in recent weeks.
Find out more about the group
