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The United States has put Yemen's Houthi rebels back on its list of specially designated global terrorists while announcing new financial sanctions on top of American military strikes, in the country's latest attempt to stop the militant group's attacks on global shipping.
Key points:
- The US says fresh sanctions on Houthi rebels will minimise harm to Yemen's population, which is among the world's poorest and hungriest
- The White House has relisted the Houthis as a terrorist organisation, after Joe Biden previously reversed the Trump administration's designation
- Critics say the sanctions and relisting may complicate international diplomacy, or play into claims that the US is the source of Yemen's suffering
US officials said they would design the financial penalties on the Houthis to minimise harm to Yemen's 32 million people, who are among the world's poorest and hungriest after years of war between the Iran-backed Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition.
The sanctions that come with the formal designation are meant to sever violent extremist groups from their sources of financing.
But aid officials have expressed concern. Oxfam America associate director Scott Paul said the decision would only add "another level of uncertainty and threat for Yemenis still caught in one of the world's largest humanitarian crises".
Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdul-Salam said in a post on social media platform X that the militant group considered its new terrorist designation by the US to be "a badge of honor for Yemen for its support of Palestinian resistance in Gaza".
Former US president Donald Trump's administration designated the Houthis as global terrorists and a foreign terrorist organisation, in one of his last acts in office. President Joe Biden reversed that course early on in his term, citing the humanitarian threat that the sanctions posed to ordinary Yemenis.
Military strikes by the US and Britain against Houthi targets in Yemen — supported by Australia — have failed to stop weeks of drone, rocket and missile strikes by Houthi forces on commercial shipping transiting the Red Sea route, which borders Yemen.
Even as US officials previewed their new sanctions, Houthis launched the second attack this week against an American-owned ship, striking with a bomb-carrying drone. The vessel and crew were safe after extinguishing a fire from the attack, the captain reported.
The Houthis are one in a network of Iran- and Hamas-allied militant groups around the Middle East that have escalated attacks on Israel, the US and others since Israel's military offensive in Gaza, in response to Hamas' October 7 attacks in Israel.
US says 'unprecedented' exemptions will allow food into Yemen
War and chronic misgovernment have left 24 million Yemenis at risk of hunger and disease, and roughly 14 million are in acute need of humanitarian assistance, the United Nations says.
Aid organisations worry that just the fear of running afoul of US regulations could be enough to scare away shippers, banks and others in the commercial supply chain that Yemenis depend upon for survival.
Yemen imports 90 per cent of its food, and two-thirds of its people live in territory now controlled by the Houthis.
US officials said their sanctions would exempt commercial shipments of food, medicine and fuel, and humanitarian assistance into Yemeni ports. The US would also wait 30 days to put the sanctions into effect, officials said, giving shipping companies, banks, insurers and others time to prepare.
Mr Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said in a statement that the US would roll out "unprecedented" exemptions in the sanctions for staples including food to "help prevent adverse impacts on the Yemeni people", adding that they "should not pay the price for the actions of the Houthis".
The US would re-evaluate the designation if the Houthis complied, Mr Sullivan said.
Jared Rowell, the Yemen country director for the International Rescue Committee, said last week that the attacks and counterattacks already were interrupting the delivery of goods and aid into Yemen, delaying shipments of vital commodities and raising prices for food and fuel.
Critics say US actions may play into Houthi narrative
Critics say the additional broad US sanctions may have little effect on the Houthis, a defiant and relatively isolated group with few known assets in the US to be threatened.
There is also concern that designating the Houthis as terrorists may complicate international attempts to broker a peace deal in the now-subsided war with Saudi Arabia.
For now, the US is not reimposing the more severe designation of foreign terrorist organisation on the Houthis. That would have barred Americans, along with people and organisations subject to US jurisdiction, from providing "material support" to the Houthis. Aid groups said that step could have the effect of criminalising ordinary trade and assistance to Yemenis.
Texas Republican Michel McCaul cited the series of Houthi attacks as he condemned the White House's decision not to reimpose that tougher designation, which carries more sweeping penalties.
When Mr Biden was asked last week whether it was a terrorist group, he replied, "I think they are."
US-based Yemeni analyst Hisham Al-Omeisy said America's designation plays into the Houthis' narrative to the world that the group are standing up to a superpower to champion Muslims everywhere.
He said that at home, the designation helps the Houthis' message to Yemenis that the US is the cause of their suffering.
It's not clear if any US allies are working on similar sanctions. European Commission spokesman Peter Stano declined to comment on whether sanctions are being discussed.
AP