The US State Department has regained the designation of Yemen’s Iran-backed Hooty Group as a “foreign terrorist organization” and fulfilled an order issued by Donald Trump shortly after he took office.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Tuesday that the department has regained its designation. This involves sanctions and penalties for those who provide “material support” to the group.
“Since 2023, Houthis has launched hundreds of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, and U.S. service members have also defended freedom of navigation and local partners,” Rubio said in a statement. “More recently, Houthis has spared China’s inflamed ships, targeting US-ally allied vessels.”
Houthis has targeted more than 100 merchant ships in a critical trade corridor with missiles and drones since the Israeli Hamas War began in October 2023. In January, the group signaled that after warning with Gaza Stripes when Gaza Stripes were needed, only Israeli corridors would be restricted only to ships in Israeli corridors after only Israeli corridors began a partnership.
Trump’s first Republican administration had also designated the Houches on a similarly declining day, but Joe Biden’s Democratic administration over concerns that would seriously affect the provision of aid to Yemen, which was believed to be facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
In a statement, Rubio suggested that such concerns were no more problematic, saying the US “tolerate countries involved in terrorist organizations like Hoosis, under the name of it practicing legitimate international business.”
In addition to the announcement of “foreign terrorist organizations,” the State Department’s “judicial remuneration” program announced it would pay up to $15 million for information that would lead to disruptions in Houthi’s funding.
The UN said it had halted humanitarian activities at Yemen’s Houthi rebel base after detaining eight more UN staff last month.
Rebels in recent months have detained dozens of UN staff and people associated with aid groups, civil society and the now embarrassing US embassy in Yemen’s capital Sanaa. No UN staff have been released.
The Houtis has fought against Yemen’s internationally recognized government. It was supported by a Saudi-led coalition in 2014, descending from Sadah’s base and controlling Sanaa and most of the North.
The Saudi-led coalition took part in the war in March 2015, backed by the United States in March 2015, in order to restore an internationally recognized government for power.
The war killed more than 150,000 people, including civilians and combatants, and in recent years it has largely deteriorated to a deadlock.
The UN predicts that more than 19 million people across Yemen will need humanitarian assistance as many respond to the economic consequences of climate shocks, malnutrition, cholera and the war.
