Article on the designation of Yemen’s Houthi as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation by the US

MECACS member and PhD candidate at the University of St Andrews Marta Furlan has recently written an article for online publication Political Violence At A Glance on the decision taken by the outgoing Trump administration to designate Houthi rebels in Yemen as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO). Furlan argues that this will be a real obstacle to both the provision of much-needed humanitarian aid and a realistic peaceful resolution of the conflict in Yemen. She sees the decision as part of a larger strategy in Trump-era Middle East policy to counter Iranian power in the region but according to Furlan this move overestimates the extent of an alliance between the Houthi rebels and Tehran. Furlan calls on the Biden administration to take American Yemeni policy in a drastically different direction in order to work with Yemeni non-state actors to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the conflict.