Trump's Attempts to Target Houthis Won't Deter Attacks

Yemenis, Oxfam, and a former CIA officer all make the same assessment: Redesignating the Houthis as a terror group will only hurt civilians

Youth collecting water from a distribution point at a camp for the internally displaced in Yemen on January 9, 2025. Photo by ESSA AHMED/AFP via Getty Images.

Sana'a, YEMEN—Despite the spinal pain caused by years of manual labor, Maher al-Asbahi, 40, has added the task of carrying tiles from the warehouse to his list of duties at a tile and ceramics shop in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, where he works as a salesman. He hopes to earn more to provide for his family’s needs. As the country’s economic conditions worsen, al-Asbahi has lost his monthly salary and now earns a daily wage that barely helps him survive.

After ten years of war, Yemen has become the site of one of the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophes, with over 19 million people—half the population—requiring humanitarian assistance. A fragile truce in 2022 allowed the warring parties fighting for control of Yemen—the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government they deposed in 2014—to negotiate a permanent ceasefire, but the war in Gaza has stalled talks.

Yemen’s Houthis joined the fight in support of the Palestinians of Gaza by attacking Israel-linked ships passing through Yemen’s waterways and launching long-range missile and drone strikes on Israeli territory. In response, the United States, its European allies, and Israel initiated a military campaign aimed at stopping Houthi attacks, but it has so far been unsuccessful.

The Houthis’ maritime campaign to target Israeli-linked ships was concentrated in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a strategic chokepoint through which nearly 1.6 billion tons of cargo and about 10% of the world's trade by volume pass annually. The attacks forced all major shipping lines to divert vessels from the Red Sea and Suez Canal into a long-distance detour that required ships to travel along the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of the African continent.

The Houthis continued their military support for Hamas until a Gaza ceasefire agreement was reached last month. No attacks on shipping or Israel have taken place since. Following President Trump’s incendiary announcement that he wants to displace Palestinians in Gaza to Jordan and Egypt and build a U.S.-owned Middle East “Riviera,” Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi issued a warning of his own: “Our fingers are on the trigger, and we are ready to escalate immediately against the Israeli enemy if they resume aggression against Gaza.”

On January 22, the group released the 25-member crew of the Galaxy Leader, an Israeli-owned cargo ship that the Houthis had seized in November of last year while it was transiting the Red Sea.

On the same day, President Trump redesignated the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) “to 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.”

Trump had previously designated the Houthis as an FTO in 2021, near the end of his term, a decision that President Biden reversed soon after taking office, saying it would help ease the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and facilitate a negotiated resolution to the conflict. After the Houthis began launching attacks on Israel-linked ships in support of Palestine in late 2023, the Biden administration designated the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Group (SDGT), a lesser terror label. While the SDGT designation includes sanctions that allow the Treasury Department to disrupt the Houthis’ access to funds in the U.S. or elsewhere, it does not make it a crime to provide “material support” to the group, as is the case with the much stricter FTO designation, and which can force organizations to cut all ties or dealings with the group.

Aid groups and experts on Yemen believe that Trump’s decision to reimpose the FTO designation will severely harm Yemen’s already fragile economy and further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.

Oxfam described the FTO designation as “yet another blow to Yemenis caught in 10 years of deadly conflict.” The aid group noted that in the months preceding the previous designation and during the brief period it was in effect, imports of necessities like food, medicine, and fuel plummeted. “The Trump administration is aware of these consequences but chose to move forward anyway and will bear responsibility for the hunger and disease that will follow,” Oxfam America’s Director of Peace and Security, Scott Paul, said in a statement. He further noted that the designation “only compounds the suffering of Yemenis and is unlikely to alter the Houthis’ policies. Instead, the U.S. should support new, independent accountability mechanisms and renew its focus on a political settlement to the conflict.”

Fahem Group, one of the few companies that imports wheat, declined to comment. A person close to the group explained that the company is concerned that any statements it makes could harm its business and that matters related to the designation remain vague and uncertain.

A collaborative report on food security issued on January 31 by a consortium of UN and other international agencies, including the World Health Organization, the World Food Program and the UN children's fund, also warned of the significant risks posed by the FTO designation. “While the intent is to address security threats and counter Ansar Allah’s actions, designating the group as an FTO poses significant risks, particularly in Yemen, where Ansar Allah controls the majority of the population and critical infrastructure,” the report said. It added that the designation could criminalize most interactions with the Houthis, including the purchase of food and fuel, disrupt supply chains and aid delivery, drive up food prices, and worsen humanitarian needs for Yemen’s 17.1 million food-insecure people.

In an interview on the FTO’s impact on Yemen, Oxfam’s Paul said that the FTO designation would result in life-saving remittances being cut, commercial imports of medicine and food being obstructed, and the overall humanitarian response severely curtailed. “Designating the Houthis is unlikely to curtail their attacks on international shipping or abuses against Yemenis. Instead, people across Yemeni communities fighting for their lives will feel the impacts,” Paul told Drop Site News.

Al-Asbahi, the tile shop worker, said he was not surprised by Trump’s decision and its potentially catastrophic consequences on an already crippled economy. Yemenis are “constantly living through crises,” he said, referring to the economic blockade enforced by Saudi Arabia for much of the past nine years with U.S. backing. “Death from hunger is better than humiliation. We might as well go to the village and light firewood,” said al-Asbahi, originally from Taiz province, 165 miles south of Sana’a. “We are trapped in an endless cycle of crises, enduring them for the sake of our dignity and our children. We will not bow to anyone.”

Bruce Riedel, a nonresident senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at The Brookings Institution, believes that the FTO designation will ultimately prove ineffective. “The goal is unrealistic and unachievable. Years of bombing by the Saudis, Israelis, Americans, and British did not eliminate Houthi capabilities to strike targets in the Kingdom and the Red Sea,” said Riedel, a counterterrorism analyst at the CIA for 30 years, in an interview with Drop Site. “A FTO designation is not going to change Houthi policy or capability. For now, the good news is that with the truce in Gaza, the Houthis have ceased attacks in the Red Sea.”

Muhammad al-Fadli, a 37-year-old supermarket worker in Sana’a, also believes the designation won’t affect the Houthis. “The sole victims will definitely be the people, who will end up paying the price. They [the Houthis] have always managed their affairs throughout the war,” said al-Fadli. “Tell me—who else, other than the poor people, have endured all this since 2015?” We’ll see a much worse situation and a famine like we’ve never seen before.”

For Muhammad al-Maghribi, who drives a motorcycle as a taxi in Sana’a, the designation was an arbitrary decision. “This decision makes people's lives difficult,” he said. “People with low incomes are the ones who will suffer the most, not the traders and rich people. We’re already living through hell, literally fighting to survive, and now we’re faced with yet another hardship.”

Al-Maghribi used to receive a monthly food basket from the World Food Program, which he said was a great help, but it was cut two years ago. “We have been besieged since Obama,” he said. “It’s been all war and a blockade of ports ever since.”

Although the FTO designation has not been a central focus in recent speeches by the Houthi’s leader, some officials have responded defiantly. Muhammad Miftah, first deputy prime minister of the Houthi government, stated that “threats, terror branding, and strangulation” did not intimidate the Yemeni people in the past and “certainly” will not today. “We warn the Americans that any measures affecting our people's livelihood and economic stability are tantamount to a declaration of war, and we will confront them with full force and ferocity,” Miftah said, according to a statement. “The Americans must understand this message clearly.”

Before and after the designations, U.S. senior officials met with some of the Houthis’ adversaries to discuss ways to confront the group and thwart its attacks on shipping lanes. In response, the Houthis mobilized fighters along the front lines. Despite the heightened rhetoric threatening the April 2022 UN-brokered truce, Riedel believes the truce will hold. “The Saudis are eager to avoid war with the Houthis, and so are the Houthis,” said Riedel, who was a senior advisor on the Middle East to four U.S. presidents.

Al-Asbahi acknowledges that his earnings are insufficient, but like millions of Yemenis, his family has adopted coping strategies. “Whatever we get, we eat—even if it’s just a piece of bread with tea,” he said. Despite the collapsing economy, he insists that Yemenis have continued to survive “with our heads held high throughout the war and blockade.”

With further hardship looming, al-Asbahi warns of dire consequences. “If they deliberately bring down the economy, it will be their downfall. It will only fuel the people’s determination,” he said. “Catastrophes will unfold if food is blocked from reaching the cities.” Throughout the war, many Yemenis have concluded that the U.S. bears full responsibility for the conflict. “The United States will face immense pressure from the Yemeni people, and Yemenis will act with the mindset: ‘If we go down, we take everything with us,’” said al-Asbahi.