Saudi Arabia is pressing the European Union to designate Yemen's Houthi movement as a terrorist organisation, but has yet to win over most member states, according to six European officials.

Reuters reported on 12 November that Riyadh's campaign is part of a wider effort to increase international pressure on the Iran-backed group, which has been carrying out near-daily attacks on the kingdom in recent weeks after the resumption of a war that began more than a decade ago.

The Houthis are already subject to European Union sanctions, including an arms embargo and asset freezes on 12 of the group's commanders. The EU has designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a key backer of the Houthis, as a terrorist organisation. But the bloc has stopped short of applying the same label to the Houthis themselves, a step already taken by the United States, Australia and Canada.

Few European governments back the step

Adding the Houthis to the EU terrorism list would require the unanimous support of all 27 member states. So far, only a small number of countries back the proposal, one of the six officials said, declining to identify them because the discussions are private.

European governments worry that a formal listing would close off the limited channels they maintain with the group and could undermine any European role in a future peace process in Yemen. Saudi Arabia's government communications office did not respond to a request for comment. EU foreign policy spokesperson Anouar El Anouni said the bloc was in regular contact with Riyadh on a range of issues, including regional developments, but declined to comment on any specific discussions under way.

Last month, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the EU to list the Houthis as a terrorist group. The move was largely symbolic, but it signalled support within Europe for a tougher stance against the group.

Concerns over retaliation and aid work

Joana de Deus Pereira, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a defence research group in London, said European states wanted to show solidarity with Saudi Arabia but remained hesitant about a listing, which she said would have limited practical impact.

Among the European concerns, she said, were that the Houthis could retaliate for any listing by targeting European vessels near Yemen, and that a designation could complicate the work of aid groups operating in Houthi-controlled areas. Several of the European officials also noted that an EU terrorism designation is particularly difficult to reverse, as lifting it would itself require unanimous support from member states.

A war that resumed after a 2022 truce

Saudi Arabia has for more than a decade led a military coalition fighting on behalf of Yemen's internationally recognised government, which the Houthis drove out of the capital, Sanaa, in 2014. Riyadh, with backing from the United States, led a years-long campaign against the group before the two sides agreed to a truce in 2022.

That truce fell apart in July this year, after the Houthis accused Riyadh of bombing Sanaa airport. Since then, both sides have carried out cross-border attacks that have killed and injured civilians. After a deadly Houthi missile strike on Riyadh's King Khalid airport in October, the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the bloc stood in solidarity with Saudi Arabia.

The stakes extend beyond the kingdom. Yemen's coastline runs along the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at its mouth, a critical waterway linking Europe and Asia. Any Houthi attacks there could further disrupt global trade, already strained by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz in response to the US-Israeli war on Iran.