U.S. to designate Yemen's Houthi movement as foreign terrorist group

RIYADH/WASHINGTON, January 12 ------ The outgoing U.S. administration is to designate Yemen’s Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organization, a move the United Nations warned could undermine peace talks and make it harder to feed Yemenis enduring the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. A leader of the Iranian-aligned group, which has been battling a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen since 2015 in a war widely seen as a proxy conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia, said it reserved the right to respond.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the move, which will include sanctions against the movement and three of its leaders, in a statement late on Sunday, hours after Reuters reported it. It will come into effect on Jan. 19, the Trump administration’s last full day in office. “It’s clear that the decision is likely to have serious humanitarian and political repercussions,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Monday, urging Washington to swiftly grant exemptions to ensure aid is not disrupted.

Dujarric also said the United Nations was “concerned that the designation may have a detrimental impact on efforts to resume the political process in Yemen, as well as to polarize even more the positions of the parties to the conflict.” U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has been piling on sanctions related to Iran in recent weeks, suggesting to some that the Republican wants to make it harder for Democrat Joe Biden’s administration to re-engage with Iran and rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear deal after he becomes president on Jan. 20.

For Biden to undo the designation would require a lengthy legal review, and he could also face political obstacles from Iran hardliners in Congress. Yemen’s Saudi-backed government called for further pressure on the Houthis, who seized the capital Sanaa in late 2014 and control much of northern Yemen. Saudi Arabia, which has been attacked by Houthi-launched missiles and drones from Yemen, said the move would “neutralize” the threat posed by the Houthis by depriving them of arms and funds and would bring them back to the negotiating table.

Source: reuters.com