Trump classifies Houthis as 'foreign terrorist organization'

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order to reclassify Yemen's Houthi rebels as a "foreign terrorist organization," the White House announced Wednesday.

Former Democratic President Joe Biden had removed this designation shortly after his election in 2020 and then, a year ago, had classified the Houthis as an "entity specially designated as a global terrorist," a slightly less severe category justified at the time by the desire to maintain the flow of humanitarian aid to this war-torn country.

The activities of the Houthis, a group supported by Iran, "threaten the security of American civilians and military personnel in the Middle East, the security of our closest regional partners, and the stability of international maritime commerce," according to this order.

Since November 2023, these rebels, who control large swathes of territory and the capital Sanaa, have launched attacks off the coast of Yemen against ships they deem linked to Israel, but also the United States and the United Kingdom. They say they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians in the context of the war in the Gaza Strip.

These attacks have disrupted traffic in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, a critical maritime area for global trade, prompting the United States to establish a multinational naval coalition and to strike rebel targets in Yemen, sometimes with the help of the United Kingdom. In late December, the U.S. military targeted several Houthi military targets, notably in Sanaa.