It’s about time? Late in the day on Tuesday Wall Street Journal reports that the Biden administration is taking belated action to put Yemen’s Houthi rebels back on the terrorist list.
ironic it was Biden who removed the Houthis in the first placeas WSJ Highlights“The designation as a foreign terrorist organization, which the US plans to formally announce on Wednesday, reverses a decision made early in President Biden’s term to delist the Houthis over concerns that it would damage the prospects for peace talks and would further cripple the economy. of an impoverished country at risk of famine.”
The Houthis were delisted in 2021 after they were first designated under the Trump administrationalso because they have been armed and financially supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran for a long time.
Since last week, the US-British-led coalition, which also includes Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands, has carried out several rounds of airstrikes and missile strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen.
The repeated Houthi attacks, which now occur almost daily, have done just that threatened to completely exclude commercial ships from the vital Red Sea transit route.
The Houthis have claimed that this is all part of the war against the Palestinians, and that their military operations are intended as retaliation against Israel and its most powerful backer, the US.
“The international coalition that America announced under the pretext of protecting maritime navigation in the Red Sea is an alliance to protect the Israeli entity and to protect Israeli ships. It is an integral part of it the aggression against the Palestinian people, Gaza and the Arab and Islamic nations”, the group previously said in a statement.
The Saudi-UAE-US coalition has waged a brutal air war against Yemen and the rebel Houthis since 2015, creating a serious humanitarian crisis. It was at this time, especially as Washington became more deeply involved in helping Saudi pilots with targeted intelligence, that the Houthis were first placed on the US terror list.
In light of all that has happened in recent months regarding Houthi attacks on civilian ships, it is interesting to revisit Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s words in his speech. February of 2021:
As of February 16 I withdraw the appointment of Ansarallah, also known as the Houthisas a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under the Immigration and Nationality Act and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) under Executive Order (EO) 13224, as amended.
This decision is in recognition of the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen. We have listened to warnings from the United Nations, humanitarian groups and bipartisan members of Congress, among others, that the designations could have a devastating impact on Yemenis’ access to basic goods such as food and fuel.
If the new WSJ reporting is confirmed, it will mark a somewhat unprecedented turnaround that will see the same group disappear from a terrorist list to being delisted to being listed again—all within a few years.
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