President Donald Trump on Wednesday officially began the process to return the Houthi rebel group, aka Ansar Allah, to the list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTO).

The Houthis are one of the main combatants in the ongoing Yemeni civil war and have disrupted shipping in the Red Sea amid the Israel-Hamas conflict. President Joe Biden formally removed the Houthis from the FTO list in 2023.

The Trump executive order, released this week, goes further and orders the USAID director and secretary of state to review international entities and contractors working in Yemen with the end goal of ending aid to groups that have funded the Houthis or obstructed efforts to challenge them.

U.S. and UK forces, in late 2023 and early 2024, launched a series of strikes on Houthi territory in northwestern Yemen but largely failed to disrupt their operations. Regarded as one of Iran's numerous regional proxies, the group targeted commercial and military vessels alike. The Biden administration attempted to build a broad international coalition to combat their efforts, but European nations largely balked at the prospect of a U.S.-led operation.