Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar today welcomed the United States' decision to reclassify Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels as a "terrorist organization."
"This is an important step in the fight against terrorism and destabilizing elements in our region," Israel's foreign minister wrote on social media after newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday. to reclassify the Houthis as a "foreign terrorist organization."
Former US President Joe Biden lifted the designation in 2020 and last year called the pro-Iranian Shiite rebels a "specially designated global terrorist entity".
This concept classified the Houthis, who control the Yemeni capital Sanaa, in a slightly less severe category, justified at the time by the intention of maintaining the flow of humanitarian aid to the war-torn country.
The Houthis' activities "threaten the safety of U.S. civilians and military personnel in the Middle East" and the security of regional partners and the stability of international maritime trade, the new U.S. executive order said.
Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered on October 7, 2023 with an unprecedented attack by the Islamist group Hamas on Israeli soil, the Houthis have launched numerous attacks against Israel, claiming to be acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.
The Houthis also regularly attack ships linked, according to their version, to Israel, the United States or the United Kingdom, in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, a maritime area essential for global trade.
The United States and the United Kingdom have deployed military resources to the region and frequently attack positions of Yemeni Shiite rebels.
At the end of last December, the US Army attacked several Houthi military targets, notably in the Yemeni capital.
