The Houthis' classification as a terrorist organization comes into effect.. What is the fate of international organizations?

The designation of the Houthi militia as a foreign terrorist organization was supposed to go into effect on Friday, the thirtieth day after US President Donald Trump’s announcement on January 22, but the US administration did not announce the entry into force of the decision.

Although the United States has not officially announced the decision to classify the Houthi militia as a terrorist organization, what will be the fate of the work of the United Nations organizations operating in areas controlled by the Houthi militia, which have not announced any measures to avoid a complete halt to their activities in the coming months?

Sources told Yemen Youth Net, "Foreign banks have begun to impose restrictions and deal cautiously with financial transfers to Yemen in general, even those funds that reach banks under the control of the internationally recognized legitimate government."

The sources said, "The tightening measures taken by the banks are evident in imposing new procedures and requesting documents and justifications for transferring funds and where they will be spent, to ensure that they do not reach areas controlled by the Houthi militias."

• Killing, intimidating and persecuting aid workers... How are the Houthis preventing aid from reaching Yemen's poor?

Transferring organizations to Aden

The government official pointed out that "the escalation of kidnappings of UN employees of international organizations by the Houthis puts their employees in imminent danger, and they no longer have a justification for continuing in Sana'a," noting that "some organizations have already begun withdrawing their balances from banks in Sana'a, in preparation for this step."

US aid

In this regard, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which is close to Hezbollah, quoted Houthi sources as saying that “the humanitarian interventions of the United Nations have declined in recent years to 70% of what they were before 2022.”

Designating the Houthis as a terrorist organization will affect the reduction of humanitarian aid in Houthi-controlled areas, where Yemen has received massive aid from the United States, totaling about six billion dollars since late 2014, according to data from the US mission to Yemen.

As for humanitarian aid to Yemen from European countries and the United States, a large part of it comes through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which Trump recently decided to suspend for 90 days until the disbursement items are reviewed. Many projects funded by the agency are now in jeopardy after his decision to reduce workers and freeze bank accounts.