How will Trump's terrorist designation of Houthis impact Red Sea attacks?
Oil trade via the Houthi-controlled Bab el-Mandeb strait decreased by 50% after the Yemeni rebels launched maritime attacks, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
DUBAI — The move by the US President Donald Trump to re-designate Houthi rebels in Yemen a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) is unlikely to curtail the group's activities or restore normalcy along the Red Sea, experts say.
Trump signed this week an executive order to re-list Ansar Allah — the formal name of the Houthi movement that governs most of Yemen's territory — as an FTO in 30 days. The move is in response for Houthis attacks against US Navy warships and for "endangering American men and women," the White House said.
Trump’s executive order signed Jan. 22 imposing the designation also referenced Houthi attacks on critical infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as well as the nearly 300 missiles fired toward Israel since October 2023.
The Houthis joined the Hamas-Israel war in support of the Palestinian movement on Oct. 30, 2023, vowing to attack Israeli-owned ships and others bound for Israeli ports. Their targeting of commercial vessels in one of the world's busiest choke points for energy traffic has resulted in ships avoiding the Red Sea area and the Suez Canal and instead taking the longer, more expensive voyage around Africa's Cape of Good Hope.
