President Donald Trump issued an executive order Wednesday re-designating the Houthis a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), reversing his predecessor’s choice to remove the Islamist group’s designation four years ago.
Trump’s executive action explains that the Houthis have fired weapons at U.S. Naval warships dozens of times and launched hundreds of projectiles at Israel since 2023. Ansar Allah, known as the Houthis, is an Iranian-backed Yemeni terrorist organization that Trump designated an FTO at the end of his first term.
“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,” Trump’s executive order reads.
“It is 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 U.S. personnel and civilians, U.S. partners, and maritime shipping in the Red Sea.”
Trump’s executive order directs Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the next U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator to review whether United Nations partners and other non-governmental organizations tied to the USAID have a relationship with the Houthis.
Former president Joe Biden reversed Trump’s FTO designation and removed its Specially Designated Global Terrorist designation from February 2021 until last January when the Houthis became increasingly aggressive in the Red Sea. Biden’s policy was considered an attempt at diplomacy with the Iranian regime as his administration unsuccessfully attempted to revive the Iranian nuclear deal.
The Houthis are an anti-Israel and anti-American organization whose aggression in the Red Sea has brought instability to international shipping routes vital for global trade. The Yemen-based terrorist group is part of Iran’s broader network of terror proxy organizations across the Middle East that have been fighting a multi-front war against Israel since Hamas’s mass civilian slaughter on October 7, 2023.
The Houthis have also attacked Yemeni civilian infrastructure and committed scores of human rights atrocities against the Yemeni population during its long-running civil war.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a U.S.-brokered cease-fire deal earlier this month to halt the war in Gaza and facilitate the release of the remaining hostages in Hamas captivity. The cease-fire agreement began last week with the release of three hostages who were held by Hamas for more than a year.
Outgoing Biden administration officials and Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, brokered the three-phase deal with Qatari and Egyptian partners. Trump said Monday he is “not confident” the fragile agreement will hold, but he has taken credit for the diplomatic breakthrough.
The Houthis have signaled that they will only attack Israeli ships in the Red Sea following the cease-fire, but those plans could change depending on the situation.