Re-Designating the Houthis Is a Major Error

The Biden administration's policies throughout the region are failing, and now they are taking out their frustrations on the people of Yemen.

The Biden administration will undo one of the few good things it has ever done:

The Biden administration plans to put the Houthi rebel group back on one of its lists of terrorist organizations, days after the U.S. launched strikes on its facilities in Yemen in retaliation for months of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, officials said.

The placement as a specially designated global terrorist group, which the U.S. plans to formally announce on Wednesday, reverses a decision made early in President Biden’s term to remove the Houthis from the list over concerns it hurt prospects for peace talks and further crippled the economy of an impoverished nation at risk of famine. The Trump administration first put the Houthis on the list.

The original designation under the Trump administration was a destructive move taken at the tail end of Trump’s presidency. It was one of Pompeo’s last-minute actions designed to handcuff the next administration. The decision was widely condemned by humanitarian relief organizations, because they understood that the sanctions that went along with the designation would make it impossible to provide aid to people in desperate need of it. Scott Paul of Oxfam said at the time that it was a “counterproductive and dangerous policy that will put innocent lives at risk.”

To their great credit back then, the Biden administration quickly reversed the designation in 2021 because they understood that it was more important to stave off a massive famine than it was to take a symbolic swipe at the Houthis. Now they are going to revive the Trump administration’s terrible policy in another foolish attempt to be seen as “doing something” about the Houthis. Their policies throughout the region are failing, and now they are taking out their frustrations on the people of Yemen.

If the administration goes through with the re-designation, it will do nothing to hamper Houthi capabilities and it will probably only strengthen their hold on power in the areas they control. We know that it will make conditions much worse for the people of Yemen. It will drive a population that has been strangled with economic warfare and blockade into famine. Apparently helping to create one famine wasn’t enough for Biden.

Re-designating the Houthis also puts the future of negotiations to end the war in jeopardy. The U.S. has already risked reigniting the conflict with its attacks on Houthi targets, and relisting the Houthis will give them another reason to lash out. If the truce collapses, the Houthis will have fewer incentives to hold back from targeting Saudi and Emirati territory. Waging an economic war on one of the poorest countries in the world is deeply wrong, and it will almost certainly blow up in Washington’s face.

When making these designations, our government has an obligation to consider the consequences of putting a group on the list when that group functions as the de facto government with millions of people living in the territory they control. In this case, a new terrorist designation is a death sentence for many innocent Yemenis that have already endured years of war and deprivation. The Biden administration knows very well what the consequences of this decision will be, and it seems that they are doing it anyway. That is nothing less than despicable.