Washington:
The Biden administration on Wednesday placed the Yemen-based Houthi rebels on a list of terrorist groups, US officials said, in Washington's latest effort to halt attacks on international shipping.
Officials said the Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) designation, which hits the Iran-linked group with harsh sanctions, was aimed at cutting off funding and weapons the Houthis have used to target ships in vital Red Sea shipping lanes to attack or hijack.
The Houthis' campaign has disrupted global trade, stoked fears of inflation and heightened concerns that the fallout from the war between Israel and Hamas could destabilize the Middle East.
“These attacks meet the definition of terrorism,” said one of three government officials who briefed reporters ahead of the announcement, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The designation comes after US and British warplanes, ships and submarines carried out dozens of airstrikes last week on the Houthis, who control the most populous parts of Yemen.
The US military carried out its latest attack on four Houthi anti-ship missiles on Tuesday, two US officials told Reuters.
The Houthi militia group, which says the attacks on commercial ships are aimed at supporting Palestinians in Israel's war in Gaza, has threatened a “strong and effective response.”
The attacks are part of a broad response to the Gaza conflict by a so-called Axis of Resistance – including the Houthis alongside Palestinian militants Hamas, Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Iraqi Shiite militias – linked to US adversary Iran.
“We will continue to counter and weaken Iranian malign influence wherever we can. So the choice to pull away from Iran is now of course in the hands of the Houthis,” a second official said, adding that the US would consider withdrawing the designation if attacks on shipping cease.
HUMANITARIAN SITUATION
A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015, supporting government forces fighting the Houthis in a war widely seen as a proxy conflict between US ally Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The Trump administration added the Houthis to two lists labeling them as terrorists a day before their terms expired. This prompted the United Nations, aid agencies and some U.S. lawmakers to express fears that sanctions would disrupt food, fuel and other commodity flows to Yemen.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken withdrew the appointments on February 12, 2021, in “recognition of the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen.”
The United Nations describes the humanitarian crisis in Yemen as 'serious': more than 21 million people – two-thirds of the population – need help. It is said that more than 80% of the population struggles to access food, safe drinking water and adequate healthcare.
Blinken on Wednesday renamed the Houthis as SDGTs, the U.S. officials said, but not as a “foreign terrorist organization,” which includes stricter bans on providing material support to those on the list and would mean an automatic travel ban.
The former designation “provides better flexibility to achieve the objectives that we have in terms of articulating and securing humanitarian assistance,” an official said, a reference to measures to soften the measure's impact on the Yemeni people that Washington plans to implement before the elections. designation takes effect after 30 days.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)