On Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States
intends to designate the Houthis—officially known as Ansar Allah (Partisan


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U.S. To Designate Iran-Backed Houthis As Terrorist Group

(New York, N.Y.) – On Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced
<[link removed]> that the
United States intends to designate theHouthis
<[link removed]>—officially known as Ansar
Allah (Partisans of God)—as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and as a
Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity. The U.S. Department of
State will also designate three of the group’s leaders, includingAbdul Malik
al-Houthi <[link removed]>,
as SDGTs. The announcement comes after the State Department conducted a
terrorism and intelligencereview
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in September and builds on an April 2015 Specially Designated National (SDN)
designation
<[link removed]> of
al-Houthi by then U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.

 

The Houthis <[link removed]> are an
Iranian-backed, Shiite Muslim military and political movement inYemen
<[link removed]>. Its members, who subscribe
to the minority Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam, have waged a series of bloody
insurgencies against the Yemeni government since 2004, overthrowing the
government and seizing power in Sanaa in 2015. In 2016, the group announced the
formation of its own government. The Houthi movement began as an effort to
maintain tribal autonomy in northern Yemen and protest Western influence in the
Middle East.

 

Counter Extremism Project (CEP) Executive Director David Ibsen applauded the
State Department for these steps, which will prohibit any U.S. contact with the
group and isolate it financially.

 

“Designating the Houthis and its leadership is an important step forward in
targeting and disrupting Iran’s long-running financial and material support of
the Houthis, which relies on funding, training, and logistical support from the
regime,” said Ibsen. “We applaud these measures to hold the Houthis accountable
for perpetrating a brutal campaign of terror and inflicting dire humanitarian
harm. The long trail of bipartisan support for clamping down on the Houthis
demonstrates that the U.S. will not tolerate—and is prepared to take a tough
stance on—groups and individuals that willfully embrace the world’s leading
state-sponsor of terrorism.”

 

To read CEP’s Houthis resource, please click here
<[link removed]>.

 

To read CEP’s Yemen resource, please click here
<[link removed]>.

 

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