Biden designates Houthis terrorist group, as U.S. ramps up Red Sea counterstrikes

• The U.S. has designated the Yemen-based Houthis as specially designated global terrorists.
• The State Department revoked the Houthis' foreign terrorist organization label in 2021, in response to humanitarian groups that claimed it was accelerating a famine in Yemen.
• The Houthis' attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea have threatened global trade over the past months.

The U.S. State Department on Wednesday designated the Iranian-backed, Yemen-based Houthi rebels as specially designated global terrorists, or SDGTs, in an effort to deter further attacks against commercial ships crossing the Red Sea.

The SDGT designation triggers an asset freeze aimed at cutting off Houthi financing, but will not take effect until mid-February. The SDGT sanctions specifically do not apply to food, medicine, fuel and other humanitarian assistance going to the Yemeni people.

"If the Houthis cease their attacks, we can consider delisting the designation," a senior administration official said Tuesday on a call with reporters.

It is the next move in the U.S. pressure campaign to weaken the Houthis' Red Sea siege, which the official called "a textbook definition of terrorism."

The State Department under President Joe Biden revoked the Houthis' designation as a foreign terrorist organization, or FTO, in Feb. 2021, just a month after it issued the label under former President Donald Trump.

The reversal came in response to calls from the United Nations and humanitarian groups who said that the terrorist classification and its associated sanctions were "accelerating Yemen's slide into large-scale famine."

Three years later, after months of Red Sea attacks, the Houthis have regained their spot on a U.S. terrorist list.

This time, the U.S. has