The US’s Biden administration moved Wednesday to designate the Houthi rebels, Ansar Allah, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) group, the latest effort to cut the group’s financial resources in response to attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The designation will take effect on February 16. Officials stressed that sanctions associated with the designation would be specifically targeted toward the Houthi rebels and would include significant carve-outs to mitigate a potential impact on the people of Yemen. According to the UN, an estimated 14 million people in Yemen are in acute need of humanitarian aid after a decade-long civil war.
The administration stopped short of adding Ansar Allah to the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list, which would have made it illegal for any person within US jurisdiction to provide “material support or resources” to the group. Such a designation would also have broadly affected financial institutions and would possibly subject any party engaged in trade with the country to criminal penalties.
Officials made the designation pursuant to Executive Order 13224 and cited “ongoing and escalating” attacks against US military and international maritime vessels operating in the seas off the coast of Yemen. The US has recently stepped up its response to the attacks with a series of airstrikes on the Yemeni capital of Sa’ana, which it defended as a necessary example of self-defense.
In anticipation of the announcement, Houthi deputy foreign minister Hussein Alezzi called any action that harmed Yemen’s interests a “declaration of war” and condemned the airstrikes as a “lifetime mistake.”
Houthi attacks in what is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world have been ongoing for months as part of a campaign by the rebels against Israel for its role in the ongoing Gaza conflict. The rebels have claimed to only be attacking Israeli ships or Israeli-linked commercial suppliers, although some of these ties have been disputed by international observers.
US officials left open the possibility that the designation may be short-lived, should the Houthi response be in line with certain expectations from Washington. They stated, “The ultimate goal of sanctions is to convince the Houthis to de-escalate and bring about a positive change in behavior. If the Houthis cease their attacks, we can consider delisting this designation.”
The Yemen Civil War has seen over 150,000 people killed and left much of the country impoverished. The Houthi movement, originally a clan-based Shiite rebel group, rose to power in 2014 when they seized the Yemeni capital and much of the western part of the country. A military intervention by Saudi Arabia soon followed, further adding to what the UN now calls the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.
