After classifying Houthis as terrorist group: Will Brotherhood suffer same fate during Biden era?

Nora Bandari

After the previous US administration of Donald Trump announced on January 19 the issuance of a decision to classify the Houthi militia in Yemen as a terrorist group, as well as Washington’s inclusion of Sinai Province and Hasm on the anti-terrorism lists, all eyes are turning towards the administration of new President Joe Biden in the hope that it will make a decision to classify the Brotherhood as a terrorist group.

Effective relations

After announcing the Houthi classification, attention turned to Yemen’s Brotherhood-affiliated Islah party, which has effective relations with the Iranian-backed militia, and this prompted Yemeni media to launch a broad campaign calling for the Brotherhood to be declared a global terrorist group due to the intensity of the interconnectedness between the two groups.

Yemeni media quoted local sources as saying that, immediately after Washington announced the classification of the Houthis as a terrorist group, the leader of the Brotherhood in the Al-Hazm Brigade in Al-Jawf Governorate, Muhammad Abdullah al-Sama’i, returned to the capital, Sanaa, which is under Houthi control, to join the ranks of the terrorist militia.

Not only that, but Yemeni sources reported that the coordination and cooperation between the Houthis and the Brotherhood is evidenced by the fact that the militia protected the property of Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, one of the most prominent Brotherhood leaders who owns companies in Sanaa, and that the Houthi militia took over its special protection in mutual coordination between the groups.

It should be noted that placing the Houthis on the US terrorism list will result in imposing more restrictions on the militia and the forces that support it with money and weapons, whether Iran or the Brotherhood, and will further isolate the militia regionally and internationally, which may force it to respond to international pressure aimed at reaching a peaceful solution to the crisis in Yemen, which is close to completing ten full years.

Brotherhood fears

After Washington designated the Houthi militia as a terrorist group, Brotherhood members have been concerned that the United States would take the same decision against them. London-based Brotherhood leader Mohamed Imad Saber explained in press statements that if the United States ever did include the group on the list of foreign terrorist entities, this means that none of the American citizens or organizations has the right to deal with it or any of its members.

Although the Brotherhood is classified as a terrorist organization in seven countries (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Russia, Syria, Kazakhstan, and Mauritania), Saber claimed that there are some obstacles hindering Washington’s classification of the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, including “the lack of a single Brotherhood structure.”

Increased corruption

Yemeni political analyst Mahmoud al-Taher explained to the Reference that the Brotherhood organization in Yemen cannot exploit the classification of the Houthis as a terrorist organization in order to replace the Houthis themselves, because the group is classified in most regions of the Middle East as terrorist, just like the Houthis, and therefore the Brotherhood may exploit the classification by the United States to increase money laundering operations and corruption.

Taher stated that by virtue of the fact that the Brotherhood is the group that controls the political and military decision of the Yemeni government, they are supposed to take advantage of the Houthis’ classification as a terrorist group for the benefit of Yemen and its people, and to push for an end to the Yemeni crisis, instead of demonstrations and the creation of hashtags on Twitter and Facebook, as these tricks do not harm the Houthis, but rather let the Brotherhood exploit this for its benefit.