Wall Street Journal: Trump plans to reclassify Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization

The American Wall Street Journal revealed that the US President-elect plans to reclassify the Iranian-backed Houthi militia as a foreign terrorist group, as part of a package of sanctions that he intends to impose on Iran to prevent it from being able to possess a nuclear weapon.

The newspaper said on Friday that the team of US President-elect Donald Trump is studying its options to stop the Iranian nuclear program, including air strikes, as Trump's advisers are considering military action, believing that economic pressure is not enough to contain Tehran.

According to the newspaper, these options include the possibility of launching preemptive air strikes, a move that would break with the long-standing policy of containing Tehran through diplomacy and sanctions.

Options also include deploying more troops, ships and warplanes to the Middle East, selling bunker-busting bombs to Israel to boost its offensive firepower, putting Iran's nuclear facilities out of commission...and perhaps even U.S. participation in a joint operation.

Among the options being studied by Trump's team, according to the newspaper, is the threat of using military force, especially if it is coupled with successful US sanctions in crippling the Iranian economy.

In the same context, officials in Trump's transition team confirmed that they intend to strengthen existing sanctions and impose new ones, including reclassifying the Tehran-backed Houthis in Yemen as a foreign terrorist organization and preventing countries that buy Iranian oil from purchasing American energy.

Late in his first term, Trump designated the Houthis a “foreign terrorist organization,” but President Biden rescinded the decision immediately after taking office in early 2021. His administration then returned in January 2024 and officially designated the Houthis as specially designated global terrorists, expanding its sanctions targeting individuals and entities linked to Houthi procurement and smuggling networks, in response to attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi militia on cargo ships and American vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Recently, the Yemeni Ambassador to the United States of America, Mohammed Al-Hadrami, proposed three measures for the US administration to deal with the threats of the terrorist Houthi militias loyal to the Iranian regime, during a briefing before the US Congress.

In addition to supporting government forces to liberate Hodeidah and targeting Houthi leaders to dismantle their leadership structure, Ambassador Al-Hadrami stressed the need to designate the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization, explaining that this step, similar to the designation of Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, would send a strong message that the Houthis’ actions – terrorizing civilians, targeting maritime security, and destabilizing the region – are unacceptable.