A Houthi fighter mans a machine gun mounted on a truck during a parade for people who attended Houthi military training as part of a mobilization campaign, in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday re-designating the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen as an official foreign terrorist organization (FTO).

“The Houthis’ activities threaten the security of American civilians and personnel in the Middle East, the safety of our closest regional partners, and the stability of global maritime trade,” the executive order read. 

The order also calls for the destruction of the Houthis’ military capabilities, thereby ending the group’s ability to attack American and allied targets, and for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to inspect all of their partners and programs in Yemen to ensure funds are not inadvertently handed over to the Houthis.

The directive also mandates USAID to cut relations with organizations that have helped fund Houthi operations or have combated international efforts to dismantle the terrorist group. In addition, the order directs Rubio to submit a report to the president after 30 days regarding the designation and “take all appropriate action” concerning the designation within another 15 days.

In January 2021, during the final days of the first Trump administration, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated the Houthis as an FTO. The next month, however, during the initial weeks of the Biden administration, then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken reversed the designation of the Houthis as an FTO, citing a desire to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Yemen. 

The official FTO designation legally prohibits American individuals and organizations from lending “material support” to the Houthis, which some critics argue could worsen humanitarian conditions in Yemen. The Biden administration’s decision to de-list the Houthis as a terrorist group drew condemnation from Republicans in the US Congress

On Tuesday, US Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) introduced the “Standing Against Houthi Aggression Act” to reclassify the Houthis as an FTO, reversing official policies of the Biden administration. 

“Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Houthis have attacked US allies more than 100 times,” he said in a statement. “With the start of the Trump administration, it’s time to get serious about counterterrorism again and send a message to the Iranian regime that the US stands with Israel and will not tolerate our allies being attacked and shipping routes in the Middle East being disrupted. Designating the Houthis as an FTO will enable the Trump administration to bring the full weight of US sanctions in order to restore peace and order in the Middle East.”

Beyond banning individuals or organizations in the United States from giving “material support or resources” to the Houthis, placing the Yemeni rebels on the FTO list would also make non-citizen members and representatives of the Houthis eligible for deportation. The designation would further mandate any US financial institution with ties to the Houthis to alert the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury.

Several countries — including Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Israel — currently designate the Houthis as terrorists.

Trump’s executive order followed repeated attacks by the Houthis against Israel since October 2023, including the launch of over 200 missiles and 170 attack drones.

Last month, for example, a ballistic missile launched by the Iran-backed group struck a playground in Tel Aviv, injuring at least 16 people and causing damage to nearby homes.

The Houthis have been waging an insurgency in Yemen for two decades in a bid to overthrow the Yemeni government. They have controlled a significant portion of the country’s land in the north and along the Red Sea since 2014, when they captured it in the midst of a civil war.

The Yemeni terrorist group began disrupting global trade in a major way with their attacks on shipping in the busy Red Sea corridor after the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, arguing their aggression was a show of support for Palestinians in Gaza.

The Houthi rebels — whose slogan is “death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory to Islam” — have said they will target all ships heading to Israeli ports, even if they do not pass through the Red Sea.

Since Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught, which launched the ongoing war in Gaza, Houthi terrorists in Yemen have also routinely launched missiles toward Israel.

The US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) released a report in July revealing how Iran has been “smuggling weapons and weapons components to the Houthis.” The report noted that the Houthis used Iranian-supplied ballistic and cruise missiles to conduct over 100 land attacks on Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and within Yemen, as well as dozens of attacks on merchant shipping.

While the Houthis have increasingly targeted Israeli soil in recent months, they have primarily attacked ships in the Red Sea, a key trade route, raising the cost of shipping and insurance. Shipping firms have been forced in many cases to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa to avoid passing near Yemen, having a major global economic impact.

Beyond Israeli targets, the Houthis have threatened and in some cases actually attacked US and British ships, leading the two Western allies to launch retaliatory strikes multiple times against Houthi targets in Yemen.

As a result of the Houthis’ aggression, the Biden administration in January 2024 placed the group on the Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) list.

Though the SDGT designation allows for sanctions, it is considered less severe than placement on the FTO list. The Biden administration opted against reimposing the FTO designation on the Houthis, citing concerns over worsening the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

“A foreign terrorist organization designation ran the risk of having a deterrent effect on some of those aid groups continuing to provide aid — worrying that they might be charged as providing material support to a terrorist organization,” former State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at th tim.

Following the recently brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to halt fighting in Gaza, the Houthis have announced they will limit their attacks on commercial vessels to Israel–linked ships provided the Gaza ceasefire is fully implemented.