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Washington, DC – When Biden administration revoked Last February, the label “terrorist” group of Yemeni Houthi rebels referred to the “devastating” consequences that the appointment would have on Yemeni civilians ’access to life-saving humanitarian aid.
But less than a year later, President Joe Biden said it was a matter of renaming the group. “considering“Defendants and rights groups say the move is not only frustrating but also dangerous.
“It is very disappointing that the Biden administration is considering this position when they know very well the humanitarian impact that this would have,” said Scott Paul, Oxfam America’s Director General of Humanitarian Policy, Al Jazeera.
“A year ago, the administration heeded our warnings, and nothing has changed since then to improve the outlook for what those appointments mean.”
The United Arab Emirates has clearly called for the US to blacklist the Houthis after the rebels carried out. missile and drone attacks On January 17, three people were killed in Abu Dhabi.
Days later, during a press conference Celebrating his one-year mark for the presidency on Jan. 19, Biden said he was “considering” reinstating the appointment, but added that ending the Yemeni conflict would be “very difficult.”
He was welcomed by the United States Embassy in Washington, DC Biden’s commitment.
Risk of starvation
But to activists calling for an end to Yemen’s long-running war, the U.S. president’s statement is a betrayal of the election promise. finishing work breaking with the conflict and the policies of his predecessor Donald Trump, who gave critical support to the Saudi-led coalition.
The US-backed coalition, which includes the BAC, intervened in Yemen in 2015, taking over most of the country’s Houthis, including the capital Sanaa, and restoring the government of Yemen’s President Abd-Rabbu of the Gulf. Mansour Hadi.
The war has put Yemen on the brink of starvation and sparked what the United Nations has said the worst humanitarian in the world of crisis.
“Appointment [of the Houthis] he would starve to death millions of Yemenis [Biden] he knows that, ”said Iman Saleh, the main coordinator of the Yemeni Liberation Movement, an anti-war group in the United States. “A nomination would not differentiate him from Trump.”
Saleh, who he went on a hunger strike Last year he also criticized the US administration’s stance on blaming the Houthis for extending the war. “It’s time for Biden to stop these games and fulfill his campaign promise: to end the war in Yemen,” he told Al Jazeera.
Democratic pressure
Among the anger of Democratic lawmakers over Trump’s close ties to Riyadh, almost all of the party’s presidential candidates, including Biden, Promised in the 2020 election campaign to end US support for the Saudi-led coalition.
Last February, a few weeks after his presidency, Biden he announced the end U.S. aid to “attack operations” in Saudi Arabia on Yemen, as well as “significant arms sales.”
But he reaffirmed his commitment to the security of the kingdom, which was clarified last year by the Biden administration $ 650 million in sales air-to-air missiles to Riyadh, as well as $ 500 million in helicopter maintenance, resulting in reprimands from some rights activists.
On Thursday, Brett McGurk, coordinator of the White House National Security Council in the Middle East, blamed the Hutus for the continuing violence in Yemen.
“There have been a number of ceasefire initiatives on the table; The Houthis have refused to attend, “McGurk told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace at a Washington DC think tank in a virtual speech.
The Houthis refused to support a U.S.-backed man last year Saudi proposal in favor of a ceasefire, including the lifting of the blockade, including the reopening of Sanaa Airport, stressing that it was an essential condition for ending the war.
Hassan El-Tayyab, the Middle East’s legislative director for political affairs, told the National Legislative Committee’s Friends Advocacy Group that the US administration’s position ignores Yemen’s “destructive impacts of the Saudi blockade.”
El-Tayyab has also warned that re-appointing Houthis will make it more difficult to end the conflict.
“Although the Houthis share much of the blame, along with the Saudi-led coalition of human rights violations in Yemen, naming foreign terrorists would do nothing to address those concerns,” he told Al Jazeera. “However, it would prevent critical humanitarian assistance to millions of innocent people and would severely damage the chances of a negotiated solution.”
‘Life will cost’
The Houthis are de facto authorities in much of northern Yemen, where they control local government and basic state functions. Humanitarian aid teams they said blacklisting the rebels would increase the risk of receiving US sanctions if they provide support and essential products to the Yemenis living in the area.
“After years of conflict, many Yemenis are already living on the edge and unable to pay even higher prices for food, fuel, medicine and other necessities,” Paul of Oxfam America told Al Jazeera in an email. “Imports would be suspended and the flow of aid would be reduced. The decision to list Houthis will cost Yemen its life. ”
However, the hawks of foreign policy in the Basque Country and Washington continue to push for a nomination.
“Close cooperation between the UAE and the United States this morning has helped to ward off another terrorist attack in Houthi in the United States,” U.S. Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba said on Monday via his embassy Twitter account. “The next step is to close the financial and arms flows of their supporters. The United States should now move to put the Houthis back on the terrorist list.”
Ambassador Al Otaiba: “Close cooperation between the UAE and the United States has helped to ward off another terrorist attack in Houthis in the Basque Country this morning.
The next step is to close the financial and arms flows of their sponsors. The United States should move now to put the Houthis back on the terrorist list. “
– US Embassy (@UAEEmbassyUS) January 24, 2022
Several U.S. Republican senators also ran an invoice To re-appoint the Houthis this week, Ted Cruz has accused Biden of calming down Iran, accusing Saudi-led coalitions of backing the Houthis, a charge denied by Yemeni rebels and Tehran.
“At present, US policy in Yemen is nothing more than documenting the violence of the Houthis, which has intensified since Mr. Biden took office,” said officials from the Hawksh Foundation for the Defense of Democracy. he wrote Wall Street Journal on January 25th.
“Moreover, the actions of the administration have undermined the basis of the US terrorist sanctions regime. Ansar Allah [the Houthi group] is the textbook definition of a terrorist group. If he removes the punishment without changing his behavior, why can’t other terrorist organizations do the same? ‘
The process
While Congress may pass legislation to force the president to blacklist a foreign organization as a “terrorist” group, the issue – like most foreign policy issues – is largely in the hands of the executive branch. The main aides to the U.S. president, the secretary of state, have the legal power to designate the group a “terrorist” and to revoke that designation.
Labeling a team as an FTO must meet three standards, according to the State Department: the organization must be foreign; It must engage in “terrorist” activity as defined by U.S. law and pose a threat to Americans or U.S. national security.
A Saudi-led and US-backed coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 to oust the Houthis. [File: Hani Mohammed/AP Photo]These appointments have a significant impact on an organization’s finances and international relations, and it is illegal for U.S. citizens to provide “material support or resources” to a blacklisted group, including financial assistance and “expert advice or assistance.”
A blacklist makes the assets of the target group subject to seizure by the U.S. government while its members and subsidiaries are open to punishment by the U.S. Treasury Department.
On Monday, State Department spokesman Ned Price recognize the dangers of blacklisting the Houthis for the humanitarian situation in Yemen.
However, El-Tayyab said that with commercial shippers already reluctant to deal with Yemen, Biden said he was considering renaming the Houthis, which could have detrimental humanitarian consequences, even if not implemented. “Say you’re considering it [it] it really undermines that critical humanitarian aid work, ”he said.
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