United States prepared to designate Houthis as a terrorist organization once again.

The US government is planning to re-designate Yemen's Houthi rebels as "global terrorists," according to senior officials in the Biden administration. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will approve this move in response to ongoing attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed group. The re-designation will require US financial institutions to freeze Houthi funds and ban its members from entering the US. This decision reverses Blinken's previous removal of the Houthis from the list of designated terror groups. In 2020, the Trump administration imposed the labels of specially designated global terrorist (SDGT) and foreign terrorist organization (FTO) on the Houthis, despite warnings from the UN and aid groups that it could worsen Yemen's humanitarian crisis and lead to a famine. However, shortly after President Joe Biden's inauguration, Blinken overturned this decision, citing the dire humanitarian situation. The new re-designation will come into force in 30 days and will also prohibit people and companies in the US from providing support to the Houthis. The Biden administration officials have emphasized that exemptions will be included to ensure the continued flow of humanitarian aid into Yemen. The ongoing attacks on commercial shipping by the Houthis, particularly in the Red Sea, have been deemed unacceptable. To counter these attacks, the US and UK conducted airstrikes against Houthi targets in January, with the support of Australia, Bahrain, the Netherlands, and Canada. The Biden administration officials have stated that the re-designation is only one part of a broader effort to stop the Houthi's terror activities. However, the Houthi rebels have dismissed the airstrikes as a mistake and vowed to continue their actions. Yemen has been engulfed in a devastating civil war since 2015, when the Houthis took control of large parts of the country, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene. This conflict has resulted in a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with millions of Yemeni citizens in need of aid.