The Biden State Department has sheepishly re-listed the Houthi rebels in Yemen as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity after lifting the Trump administration’s listing them as terrorists in 2020.
The administration claims that the reason Biden lifted the terror designation in 2021 was the grave humanitarian situation in Yemen where civilians were in dire straits because of the ongoing civil war. There’s also the fact that the designation was lifted at a time when Biden was reversing as many Trump-era policies as quickly as possible.
The Houthis are hitting ships sailing under almost all flags in the Red Sea, where about 12% of worldwide shipping passes through. They claim that the missiles and drones aimed at cargo ships are in retaliation for Israel’s war with Gaza. But most of the ships are not connected to Israel, the United States, or any nation involved in the war.
“These attacks are a clear example of terrorism and a violation of international law and a major threat to lives, global commerce, and they jeopardize the delivery of humanitarian assistance,” a U.S. senior administration official said in a call with reporters Tuesday.
The SGDT designation is different than the “Foreign Terrorist Organization” designation. CNN reports that “Both terrorist designations trigger economic sanctions, but only an FTO designation imposes a travel ban on members of the group and authorizes sanctions on those who provide ‘material support’ to it, according to the State Department.”
The reimposed SDGT designation will take effect 30 days from Wednesday, the official said, “to allow us to ensure a robust humanitarian carve outs are in place so our action targets the Houthis and not the people of Yemen.”
A second senior administration official said the administration will conduct outreach during that 30-day period to organizations involved with humanitarian aid to Yemen. 21.6 million people were in need of such assistance in 2023, according to the World Food Programme.
The officials said the designation is not meant to impact the fragile truce in Yemen between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition.
The Houthis are causing chaos among global shippers. The latest casualty of the war is the British-Dutch oil giant Shell, which said they were suspending all shipments through the Red Sea. It probably won’t cause any shortages, but Shell will have to reroute its ships through safer waters, adding time and money to the transit.
“The Iranians are providing both intelligence as well as ballistic missiles to the Houthis in Yemen. This is part of the broader strategy to create the network of terrorist organizations they call the axis of resistance,” Alex Plitsas, a Middle East analyst at the Atlantic Council, told The Messenger.
“In this particular case, the Iranians are using the Houthis to tie up U.S. assets and make us feel some pain for supporting Israel,” he said.
Rather than entertaining Mr. Biden’s pleas to scale down its nuclear race, Iran escalated efforts to surround Israel with proxies bent on obliterating the “Little Satan.” The Houthis (“death to America, death to Israel, curse be on the Jews”) were quickly enlisted. They launched missiles on Eilat and hit Israel’s economy by attacking ships in the Red Sea. At first targeting vessels loosely linked to Israel, they are now threatening all traffic in the artery.
Reacting to the Houthi aggression, Mr. Biden acknowledges, however grudgingly, that the Houthis indeed fit the classic definition of terrorism. “They are” terrorists,” he told a reporter even before today’s announcement. Yet listing the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Group is weaker than the Foreign Terrorist Organization category. The 30-day delay, too, allows the terrorists to move assets around, escaping mandatory confiscation.
Biden is fearing the consequences of his actions. His reluctance to name the Houthis as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” shows how terrified the president is of drawing other nations and groups into the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
It’s wise to be cautious. But the Houthis and their masters in Iran don’t care about being cautious. Eventually, Biden is going to have to decide whether or not to give the Houthis and Iran a lesson in why provoking America to fight is always the wrong strategy.