White House Holds Meeting on Redesignating Houthis as Terrorists

According to a report from Axios, the White House held a meeting last Friday on the possibility of redesignating Yemen’s Houthis as a “foreign terrorist organization” at the behest of the UAE.

President Biden reversed the Houthi terror designation as one of his first foreign policy moves in office. The designation was made in the final days of the Trump administration despite warnings from the UN and aid groups that it would make the delivery of food to Yemen’s starving population much more difficult.

Conditions have only gotten worse in Yemen over the past year, and aid groups are again strongly warning against the designation. Since most of Yemen’s starving population is in Houthi-controlled territories, the designation could essentially criminalize delivering aid by sanctioning anyone that does business with the Houthis.

Abu Dhabi asked the Biden administration to redesignate the Houthis after a recent spate of Houthi attacks on the UAE. The Houthis missile and drone attacks are a response to the UAE’s role in the US-backed Saudi-led war in Yemen that has been raging since 2015.

Sources told Axios that the National Security Council was more open to the designation than the State Department, which supports targeting specific Houthi leaders with sanctions. Since Houthi leaders likely have no assets in the US, sanctions and the terror designation would do little to the Shia group and would only contribute to the starvation of civilians.