A new bill was introduced to the US Congress on Tuesday to designate the Houthis as a terrorist group in the United States, days after a US destroyer intercepted Houthi missiles and drones believed to be heading to Israel.

The bill was reintroduced by Republican Representative Andrew Clyde, called the “Stand Against Houthi Aggression Act,” which would reimpose sanctions imposed on the armed Houthi group as a foreign terrorist organization.

The draft law refers to the Houthis’ cross-border attacks on US allies, including Saudi oil facilities.

If passed, the law requires the Houthis to be classified as a foreign terrorist organization, no later than 90 days.

The administration of President Joe Biden had reversed the policy decision of his predecessor Donald Trump's administration to remove the Houthis from the list of foreign terrorist organizations and global terrorist lists.

The Houthis are committed to a UN-brokered ceasefire in April 2022 to reduce fighting, which has continued in one form or another despite the end of the ceasefire in October last year. Saudi Arabia recently hosted representatives of the Houthis for talks that lasted several days, in the first official visit of a Houthi delegation to the Kingdom since 2014.

Enacting the law would further complicate the peace process in the country that has been suffering from an ongoing war for more than nine years, when the Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa (September 2014).

The US special envoy to Yemen said on Tuesday that he feared the crisis in Gaza would threaten what he called progress toward peace between the Houthis and the internationally recognized government, saying that the possibility of the country being drawn into the conflict in Gaza was his “worst fear.”

The removal of the Houthis from terrorist lists faced criticism from the Yemeni government and its allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The Biden administration justified removing the Houthis from the list by saying that designating the group could exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

With the continuation of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, which led to the death of more than 5,000 Palestinians, the administration of US President Joe Biden continued to provide military and financial support to the occupation.

On Thursday, the USS Carney, a US Navy guided-missile destroyer in the northern Red Sea, shot down three missiles and several drones launched by Houthi forces in Yemen. The Pentagon said the missiles may have been headed toward Israel.