The Global Coalition Against ISIS was established in September 2014 under US leadership. Today, it comprises more than 80 countries and international organizations, including the European Union and the Arab League, united in the mission of combating and ultimately eliminating the terrorist organization in Iraq, Syria and across the world.
The coalition was formed when ISIS controlled parts of eastern Syria and western Iraq. Today, its territorial state has collapsed, and the organization has retreated into the digital underground and scattered clandestine pockets on the ground.
Now consider the comparison between ISIS and the Houthis.
ISIS did not possess the ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones or naval capabilities that the Houthis use to threaten global trade in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea.
More importantly, ISIS did not enjoy the overt regional backing of a major state such as Iran. Nor did it have defenders, under whatever pretext, in the international media or among civil society and human rights organizations.
Yesterday, during a telephone conversation with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council Chairman Rashad al-Alimi called for support for an international initiative to designate the Houthi militia a terrorist organization, according to the SABA news agency.
Al-Alimi urged action through the UN Security Council to ensure enforcement of the arms embargo on the Houthi militia, cut off its sources of funding, and hold its backers and those responsible for alleged violations accountable.
Yemen also called for the Houthis to be designated a terrorist organization during the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Baghdad on October 17. It urged member states to cut off the group's funding and halt the flow of weapons and military expertise to its forces.
In a statement issued on October 18, the Gulf Cooperation Council's Ministerial Council likewise called for the Houthis to be designated a terrorist organization and emphasized the need to enforce the arms embargo imposed on the group under UN Security Council resolutions, including Resolution 2216 of 2015.
In 2022, the Security Council placed the Houthis under the Yemen sanctions regime, subjecting them to arms embargo measures. The latest Yemeni initiative seeks broader international support for designating the group a terrorist organization.
So what stands in the way of forming a coalition of the willing, bringing together countries and international organizations to designate the Houthis a terrorist group and, more importantly, act accordingly rather than merely issue a designation and leave it at that?
If the United States, the West and many other countries are sincere in regarding the Houthis as a threat; if they are sincere in their solidarity with Yemen and Saudi Arabia; if they genuinely care about freedom of trade and navigation in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden; and if they truly oppose Houthi acts of terrorism, including the detention of approximately 70 United Nations personnel, then why not translate all these declarations into action?
An international coalition against the Houthis, equipped with military muscle, legal force, a concerted media campaign and the power to deliver an economic blow.
Is that really too much to ask?
