[ April 10, 2026 ]
Then he backpedaled and did not criminalize support for the terrorist group or force banks to seize assets.
‘Bait and Switch’: Biden Decision To Water Down Houthi Terror Designation Draws Outrage
Federal statute does not criminalize support for the terrorist group or force banks to seize assets
ADVERTISEMENTBy: Adam Kredo, WFB, January 17, 2024:
The Biden administration moved to reapply sanctions this week on the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, but did so under a weaker federal statute that will not criminalize support for the terrorist group or force American banks to seize their assets, current and former U.S. officials told the Washington Free Beacon.
After months of Houthi attacks on U.S. and Western ships in the Middle East, the Biden administration announced late Tuesday that it will be placing the Houthis on the Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) list, which applies a range of new sanctions on the group, effective Feb. 16.
This designation, however, is significantly weaker than the one applied by the Trump administration, which labeled the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), a far more stringent classification that criminalized all support for the militant group and forced U.S. banks to seize the group’s funds. Upon entering office in 2021, the Biden administration removed the Houthis from the FTO list as a gesture of good will toward Iran as it pursued diplomacy with the hardline regime.
The Iran-backed, Yemen-based militant group has been wreaking havoc in the Middle East for months, attacking Western military and commercial ships in a show of support for Hamas’s war on Israel. The attacks have drawn a tepid U.S. response that has included limited U.S. retaliatory strikes on the group’s infrastructure, prompting accusations from Republican lawmakers and former officials that the Biden administration is scared of confrontation with Iran and its terrorist proxies. Tuesday’s designation followed weeks of public pressure from Congress but is already generating criticism for being issued under a weaker federal statute.
ADVERTISEMENT“This is a bait and switch,” Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and sanctions expert who served on the White House National Security Council, told the Free Beacon. “Get the media to write they’re listing the Houthis as a terrorist group while obscuring the decision not to relist the group as a foreign terrorist organization. They know FTO status would put maximalist pressure on the Houthis—which is why they won’t do it.”
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