The Trump administration finalized an executive order, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, that redesignates the Iran-backed Houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).
The administration readied the order Wednesday afternoon, and President Donald Trump signed it just past 5 p.m. The order fully restores tough American sanctions on the Yemen-based terror group that the Biden administration lifted in 2021. Trump added the Houthis to America’s FTO list in the waning days of his first administration, but the Biden White House reversed the move amid efforts to ease diplomatic tensions with Iran.
The Biden administration did redesignate the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist outfit last January, when the Houthis launched a wave of attacks on global shipping vessels. While that designation does provide for sanctions, it is less severe than an FTO designation, which carries criminal penalties for anyone caught providing material support to the terror outfit in question.
Trump’s rush to redesignate the Houthis signals an early desire to confront Iran’s top proxies and further help Israel crush Tehran’s regional terrorism enterprise.
Trump’s order, an advance copy of which was reviewed by the Free Beacon, calls out Iran for sponsoring the Houthi’s ongoing Middle East terror spree, which kicked into high gear after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The Houthis have conducted more than 300 direct attacks on Israel since October 2023 and are responsible for interrupting global maritime traffic in the Red Sea.
Trump’s order declares that it is now U.S. policy to eliminate the Houthi capabilities and operations, depriving it of the resources needed to continue attacking American interests in the region.
Within 30 days of the executive order's enactment, newly sworn-in Secretary of State Marco Rubio will present Trump with a proposal to relist the Houthis as an FTO, a designation that is applied via the State Department. Once that report is issued, Rubio can begin implementing the new sanctions.
The order will additionally force the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to reassess all of its funding priorities in Yemen to ensure that no American taxpayer cash is benefiting the Houthis or its enablers.
Shortly after Trump signed the order, the White House released a fact sheet that criticized the Biden administration's "weak policy" and touted the administration's efforts to "eliminate the Houthis' capabilities."
"As a result of the Biden administration’s weak policy, 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," the fact sheet states.
"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. personnel and civilians, U.S. partners, and maritime shipping in the Red Sea."
Earlier on Wednesday, the Houthis released the 25-member crew of a commercial ship the terrorist group hijacked in November 2023.
Yemen's government broadly supports the Houthi FTO designation. It recently praised Trump as "key to defeating Houthis."
Yemen’s United Nations-backed government has also pushed plans to galvanize Western nations into more forcefully confronting the Houthis and, more broadly, Iran.
"They have one remaining domain and that is Yemen," Aidarus al-Zoubaidi, the country’s vice president, told the Guardian on Tuesday. "Now is the time to counter the Houthis and push them back into their position."
Update 6:05 p.m.: This piece has been updated to note that President Donald Trump formally signed the executive order in question.