What is required of the government after classifying the Houthis as a terrorist group?

Since the United States of America decided to classify the Houthi militia as a "foreign terrorist group," the legitimate government has not taken any emergency measures or held any official meetings to discuss the necessary plans to invest this decision in a way that serves the battle to restore the state and its institutions.

Designating the Houthis as a terrorist group opens a window for the Yemeni government to limit the influence of the militias economically and financially, which is no less important than the military confrontation. However, so far, we have not seen any actual steps that reflect a serious response to this international resolution in accordance with what the national interest and government responsibility require.

Economic and banking measures necessary to confront the Houthis

There is a package of urgent decisions that the legitimate government must take immediately, especially in the economic and banking fields, to ensure the besiegement of the Houthis and the drying up of their sources of funding, based on the decision to classify the Houthi militia as a "terrorist group", including:

1. Announcing a blacklist of companies linked to the Houthis: The government must issue an official list of all companies and commercial entities controlled by or financially linked to the Houthis, and ban dealings with them permanently.

This step will prevent any flow of funds to the militias through companies operating under commercial cover in the liberated areas or outside Yemen.

2. Strict measures in the banking sector: The Central Bank of Yemen must move immediately to stop all exchange companies based in Sana’a, or that deal with the Houthis.

Obligating commercial banks to close the accounts of companies linked to the Houthis, and preventing any financial transfers to areas controlled by the militias, except through official channels and close monitoring.

3. Monitoring shipping and maritime transport companies: The government must warn all shipping and maritime transport companies against dealing with any companies or entities that have links to the terrorist Houthi militias, or that work to transport goods and fuel used by the Houthis to finance their military operations.

4. Regulating the telecommunications sector in a manner that serves legitimacy: Most Yemeni telecommunications companies still operate under the control of the Houthi militias, which means that a large portion of their revenues go to financing the militias.

The government must issue immediate decisions obligating these companies to reform their situation, move to areas controlled by the legitimate government, or take measures to prevent the flow of money to the Houthi militias within a specific period of time, otherwise their licenses will be suspended and their assets in the liberated areas will be confiscated.

The question that imposes itself today: Why has the government not moved to implement these necessary measures? Are there external pressures preventing it from taking serious steps to besiege the Houthis economically? Or is there administrative and political negligence?

There is no doubt that there is a possibility of external pressure, especially from some allied parties, such as the big sister Saudi Arabia, which may try to prevent the government from taking decisive decisions that would impose a stifling economic siege on the Houthi militias, as it did in previous stages.

But if this is the reality, then we are facing a serious dilemma that requires a radical review of the nature of the relationship between the legitimate government and its allies, especially if it is proven that these pressures are leading to the suffocation of the legitimate government itself, and keeping it in a state of permanent helplessness in the face of the Houthi militias.

The government cannot continue in political and administrative stagnation while it has a historic opportunity to invest in the American and international decision against the Houthi militias to achieve a complete victory on the path to restoring the state and ending the coup.

The government must take sovereign decisions without hesitation, and hold the international community, especially the big sister, responsible for supporting legitimacy instead of obstructing it.

If the government does not move to keep up with the terrorist classification of the Houthis with realistic measures, the Yemeni interior may be forced to bypass the foreign leadership and the government and search for new alternatives that express the popular and national will.

The government’s continued hesitation in making sovereign decisions and its failure to invest in available opportunities to weaken the Houthis financially and economically reflects a deeper crisis in the nature of managing the national battle. If there are external parties preventing it from moving, political realism dictates a re-evaluation of the nature of this relationship, especially if it serves the interests of the Houthi militias at the expense of the legitimate state.

Taking bold decisions at this stage is not an option, but an absolute existential necessity, to prevent the collapse of the state and the continued dominance of terrorist militias over Yemen’s resources and present and to threaten its future.

(From the author's page)