Biden Labels Houthis 'Terrorists' Amid Disruptions to Global Shipping

Despite removing them from the FTO list, the President acknowledges the group's terrorist activities as attacks cause significant diversion in global shipping routes.

• Biden has called the Yemeni Houthi forces a 'terrorist' group, despite his administration's decision to remove them from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).
• Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping have caused a 90% drop in container ship traffic through the Red Sea and Suez Canal between January 2023 and 2024, and a massive diversion of ship traffic to Africa.
• The Houthis, backed by Iran, have been attacking shipping at the mouth of the Red Sea since October, claiming it as a show of support for Palestinians under siege by Israel in Hamas-governed Gaza.
• Biden's response to the Houthi campaign against global shipping was to create 'Operation Prosperity Guardian', a coalition of mostly Western militaries meant to assure commercial shipping companies that transiting in the region would remain safe.
• Despite Biden's dismissal of the FTO list as 'irrelevant', his National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby stated that the administration believed the FTO list was relevant enough to 'review' the absence of the Houthis on that list.

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