The Biden administration announced a major policy reversal.
It’s redesignating the Iran-backed—Yemen-based—Houthis as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” group after a round of U.S. airstrikes on the Houthis for attacking international shipping in the Red Sea.
The Trump administration had given the Houthis this designation back in January 2021 and also listed the group as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization,” but the Biden administration reversed both of these designations less than a month later.
The Houthis‘ reclassification as a terrorist organization will go into effect on Feb. 16. We talked with Gabriel Noronha, former Special Adviser for the Iran Action Group at the U.S. State Department, about the options the Biden administration should consider in dealing with the Houthis and the Iranian government that funds them.