Fatima Abo Alasrar
The United States designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) took effect on March 4. This move comes after years of fruitless diplomatic efforts where international institutions treated the Houthis as legitimate partners at the negotiating table, only to be outplayed at every step. Throughout this time, the Iran-backed Houthis not only cemented their alliance with Tehran, but also expanded their war to the Red Sea and Israel continuing to pose a threat on vessels in the Red Sea. This geopolitical confidence and expansion of their military arsenal couldn’t have occurred without help from a crucial yet underestimated player: Russia.
Mohammad Abdulsalam, the chief Houthi spokesperson once courted by Western diplomats as a potential peace negotiator, was one of the seven individuals the US designated, along with six other high-ranking Houthi leaders. Abdulsalam has been quietly traveling to Moscow in his capacity as a spokesperson for the Houthi militia and under the guise of his position as a mediator for Yemen’s conflict, strengthening a relationship that benefits both the Houthis and the Kremlin.
The US sanctions specifically focus on individuals involved in weapons procurement and smuggling operations, directly addressing the group’s regionally threatening military capabilities. The targeting of Moscow-linked Houthi figures is the clearest indication yet that the group’s relationship with Russia is no longer just a matter of convenience but a calculated military alliance. These sanctions expose a supply chain of instability through a transnational weapons pipeline linking Tehran, Sanaa, and Moscow in a web of illicit arms transfers that goes beyond the Houthis’ ideological fanfare or mere opportunism.
For a movement that once claimed to be “independent,” the Houthis have instead become a tool of foreign powers, shifting from an Iranian proxy to a Kremlin asset. Russia, isolated by its war in Ukraine, recognized the Houthis’ potential as a pressure point against the West. Tehran and Moscow have long understood that armed non-state actors, when properly equipped, can shape global conflicts as effectively as standing armies. The FTO’s treasury designation’s focus on relations with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Russia makes it clear that the Houthis are not the architects of their own rise, but merely instruments in a much larger geopolitical contest.
SIGN UP FOR THIS WEEK IN THE MIDEAST NEWSLETTER
Yemen’s internationally recognized government welcomed the FTO designation, after years of advocacy against the previous Biden administration’s 2021 reversal of the Houthis’ terrorist status. For many Yemenis, both within the country and across the diaspora, the FTO designation represents a long-overdue recognition of reality that the West has consistently overlooked: that the Houthis are not interested in peace.
Yemeni communities have directly experienced Houthi brutality firsthand, from forced child recruitment and arbitrary detentions to systemic kidnapping of aid workers and torture of political opponents. But they also recognize that the complicated Houthi ties with Tehran and Russia, along with Houthis’ threat on the Red Sea, is roping Yemen into conflicts that could deepen their misery and present serious implications for Yemen’s future.
Throughout Yemen’s conflict, global discourse in international media largely centered on Saudi Arabia’s military involvement in Yemen and the humanitarian crisis it created, stifling serious debate on long-term strategy and security. Many analysts downplayed Houthis’ deepening ties with Iran and Russia, overstated Houthis’ autonomy, dangerously underestimating Tehran and Moscow’s encroaching influence. As Western policymakers looked elsewhere, the Houthis quietly evolved into a strategic force empowered to execute operations with severe global consequences.
From negotiating table to Kremlin asset
The Houthi military trade with Russia involves both imports and exports, according to the Treasury. Washington’s intelligence confirms that Russia’s foreign military agency, the GRU, is now operating in Houthi-controlled Sana’a under the guise of humanitarian aid, providing technical assistance that enhances Houthi military operations. Furthermore, there are reports linking renowned Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to weapons smuggling operations benefiting the Houthis. This relationship has evolved from opportunistic exchanges to direct military collaboration, with the Kremlin reportedly assisting with data tracking systems that enhance the Houthis’ maritime targeting capabilities in the Red Sea.
While the Houthis have long exploited Yemen’s war economy, profiting from everything from fuel smuggling to extortion, recent intelligence reveals an even more insidious revenue stream. According to the US Treasury Department, Houthi operative and ‘major general’ Abdulwali Abdoh Hasan Al-Jabri ran a human smuggling network, recruiting Yemeni civilians to fight for Russia in Ukraine.
This revelation exposes a new dimension of the Houthi-Russia relationship, one that extends beyond weapons and into human capital. A Zaydi Shia jihadi group funneling cannon fodder to an ostensibly secular dictatorship exemplifies the moral bankruptcy of both parties. By mid-2024, Houthi rebels had funneled thousands of Yemenis into Russian military training camps under false pretenses. Many recruits believed they were signing up for construction jobs at two thousand dollars a month, a cruel deception that transforms the Houthis from mere terrorists into something more contemptible: traffickers in human misery, directly serving Russian military interests.
What is truly troubling, however, is that the same Houthi representatives engaged in this human trafficking to Russia — Abdulsalam, Ali Muhammad Muhsin Salih Al-Hadi, and Mahdi Mohammed Hussein Al-Mashat—had previously postured as dealmakers during the 2018 Stockholm Agreement negotiations that saw significant victories for the rebel faction. This pattern exposes not just Houthi duplicity, but the international community’s weakness: a preference for celebrating photo-op diplomacy over demanding verifiable commitments. The Stockholm talks didn’t deliver peace but a tactical pause that was so eagerly misread by Western mediators desperate for any sign of progress in Yemen.
Strategic maritime selectivity
The US Treasury has confirmed that the Houthis deliberately target Western shipping while ensuring safe passage for Russian and Chinese vessels, an arrangement they have openly acknowledged. This pattern of selective targeting is not incidental but strategic. As General Michael Kurilla, the commander of US Central Command, testified before Congress last year, Iran, Russia, and China are actively reshaping the regional order at the West’s expense, using asymmetric actors like the Houthis to apply pressure. Their coordination with Moscow and Beijing to shield Russian and Chinese vessels while attacking US and allied shipping underscores this geopolitical alignment. According to the Office of Foreign Assets Control, Mohamed Ali Al-Houthi has directly communicated with Russian and Chinese officials to secure this arrangement.
This maritime strategy is part of the broader Russian-Iranian realignment that accelerated after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Moscow abandoned neutrality, aligning with Iran while strengthening military and intelligence ties with its proxies, aided by IRGC-supplied drones. The Kremlin’s radar tracking technology has since sharpened the Houthis’ ability to identify and target vessels in the Red Sea with precision, further embedding them in an axis designed to weaken Western influence over global trade.
Russia also notably provided the Houthis with support in the diplomatic arena: In 2015, Moscow abstained from United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 2216, which imposed an arms embargo on the Houthis. By refusing to back it, Russia kept the Houthis politically viable as a strategic bargaining chip, ensuring they remained a useful counterweight in regional power dynamics while preserving its own leverage in Yemen’s conflict. Moreover, when a UN panel of experts, including American analyst Gregory Johnsen, later exposed clear violations of that embargo, Russia went on the offensive, discrediting the findings, blocking enforcement, and vetoing Johnsen’s reappointment.
Yet, even as Moscow and Tehran expanded their influence, Western policymakers still clung to the idea that the Houthis were just another regional insurgency, rather than a weaponized proxy in an emerging anti-Western axis. Even in the months leading up to October 7, 2023, there was still cautious optimism about Houthi engagement in negotiations with the UN Envoy, Hans Grundberg, expressing optimism about things moving “in the right direction.” And while this illusion has now collapsed, the international community is left scrambling for a response, with the UN still incapable of protecting its own staff kidnapped by the Houthis, let alone solve Yemen’s decade-long crisis.
For these reasons, Washington’s renewed terrorist designation sends an important message in acknowledging the geopolitical problem in the Red Sea, but it comes a little too late. If the United States continues to pursue engagement on outdated terms, it will once again be outmaneuvered by a group that answers not to Yemen’s interests, but to Tehran’s and Moscow’s. The question now is whether Washington will finally catch up to reality, or whether it will repeat the mistakes that let the Houthis rise in the first place.
Fatima Abo Alasrar is a Senior Analyst with the Washington Center for Yemeni Studies and a Board Member of Peace Track Initiative. She can be found on X at @YemeniFatima.
Further reading
Image: Armed Hotuhis carry guns during a pro Palestine protest in Sana’a. Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Houthi movement, has issued a warning that his group will resume naval assaults on Israel unless the blockade preventing aid from reaching the Gaza Strip is lifted. Today marks the final day of the deadline set by al-Houthi for Israel to permit the entry of humanitarian assistance.