Today the State Department says it will list the Yemeni Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Group, reversing its February 2021 removal of the Houthis from the Foreign Terrorist Organization list. The new designation will take effect only in 30 days to facilitate humanitarian aid to — wait for it — Yemen. The good news is that President Biden seems agile enough to change course. The bad news is that he is doing so half-heartedly. 

The global and American left went apoplectic when President Trump, at the end of a term marked by “maximum pressure” on the Islamic Republic of Iran, added the Houthis to the terrorist list. That designation exempted humanitarian deliveries to Yemen. Yet, Democrats and appalled commentators cited a United Nations report that the listing would tremendously hamper efforts to ease civilian suffering in one of the world’s poorest countries. 

At that time, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and allies were levying a war to remove Houthi fighters from the capital, Sanaa, and other key areas they seized in an “Arab Spring”-era civil war. During that war, the Houthis and their Tehran patrons perfected a novel combat strategy, discovering that shelling Saudi and Emirati civilian targets costs less than the expensive missile defense systems that their enemies were forced to deploy. 

That equation is serving the Houthis and their patrons well in the current war. With fairly cheap arms, they are now blocking most shipping in the Red Sea, where 15 percent of the world’s commerce travels. The cost to the free world is significant. As a “senior administration official” in Washington puts it, the attacks consist of “terrorism and a violation of international law and a major threat to lives and global commerce.” 

In a briefing, that official added that the Houthis also “jeopardize the delivery of humanitarian assistance.” Yet in 2021 Mr. Biden had more in mind than fretting over aid to Yemen. Reversing most of his predecessor’s policies, he signaled by unlisting the Houthis that America was ending a decades-old alliance with Riyadh in favor of its Shiite rival, Iran. As some of us predicted, that policy backfired as Tehran declined to accommodate the “Great Satan.” 

Rather than entertaining Mr. Biden’s pleas to scale down its nuclear race, Iran escalated efforts to surround Israel with proxies bent on obliterating the “Little Satan.” The Houthis (“death to America, death to Israel, curse be on the Jews”) were quickly enlisted. They launched missiles on Eilat and hit Israel’s economy by attacking ships in the Red Sea. At first targeting vessels loosely linked to Israel, they are now threatening all traffic in the artery.

Reacting to the Houthi aggression, Mr. Biden acknowledges, however grudgingly, that the Houthis indeed fit the classic definition of terrorism. “They are” terrorists, he told a reporter even before today’s announcement. Yet listing the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Group is weaker than the Foreign Terrorist Organization category. The 30-day delay, too, allows the terrorists to move assets around, escaping mandatory confiscation.

Like the advance warnings prior to last week’s attack on Houthi facilities, which allowed terrorists to get out of the fire line, today’s announcement signals that Mr. Biden is getting tough while fearing the consequences of his own actions. His often-expressed worry of “escalation” leads to half-measures that seem to leave the door open for Tehran diplomacy. Meanwhile the Houthis escalate their aggression, while Iran directly attacks America and its allies.