United States (U.S.) President Donald Trump, on Wednesday, signed an executive order to re-classify Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organisation.
“The Houthis have fired at U.S. Navy warships dozens of times, launched numerous attacks on civilian infrastructure in partner nations, and attacked commercial vessels transiting Bab al-Mandeb more than 100 times,’’ Trump’s Office of Communications said.
Signing the order puts the process for reclassifying the militia in motion. Designation as a foreign terrorist organisation is accompanied by tough sanctions.
Shortly before the end of Trump’s first term as president in 2021, his then-secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, initiated the categorisation of the Houthis as a terrorist organisation.
Pompeo’s successor, Antony Blinken, cancelled this shortly afterwards in order to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Yemen.
Since the start of the conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Houthi militia had repeatedly attacked Israel and international merchant ships in support of Palestinian militant organisation Hamas.
In response, Israel, the U.S. and Britain have repeatedly attacked Houthi targets in Yemen.
In its terror designations, the U.S. differentiates between “Specially Designated Global Terrorists and Foreign Terrorist Organisations.’’
The distinction played a role in the sanctions associated with the designation.
With Trump’s order, the militia would soon be back on both lists.
A civil war had been raging in Yemen since 2014 and the majority of the population lived in areas controlled by the Houthis.
