The Biden administration's decision to redesignate Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis as a terrorist organization remains misplaced and defeats the purpose of the designation, experts told Fox News Digital.
“This is a bait-and-switch,” said Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former National Security Council official. “Let the media write that we are re-registering the Houthis as a terrorist group while obscuring the decision not to re-register them as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).”
“They know that the FTO position puts extremist pressure on the Houthis, so they don't do that,” Goldberg explained. “Why avoid FTO? It's the same reason FTO was delisted in the first place.”
“They want the Houthis to be legitimized enough to become part of Yemen's governing structure,” he said. “They're going to issue all sorts of OFAC licenses to ease the SDGT designation, but they couldn't do that with the FTO designation.”
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The State Department redesignated Yemen's Houthis as terrorists, but did not place them on the list of foreign terrorist organizations. (Getty Images)
The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it would add and relist the Houthis as a terrorist organization. Specially Designated Global Terrorist It was placed on the (SDGT) list following repeated attacks by the Houthis on international trading vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The administration called the attack a “clear example of terrorism and violation of international law” and a “grave threat to life, global commerce, and…the provision of humanitarian assistance.”
Protesters loyal to the Houthi movement rallied in Sanaa, Yemen, on December 9, 2023, in support of the group's decision to target Israeli ships or ships heading to Israeli ports. (Mohamed Hammoud/Getty Images)
Even after the US and UK launched attacks on Houthi assets in Yemen, Houthi attacks on commercial ships did not stop. The group claimed the attack was carried out in response to Israel's military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Trump administration designated the Houthis as an FTO in January 2021 following an attack on Yemen's Aden, the oldest airport in the Arabian Peninsula. At the time, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said of the designation, “We would not designate the Houthis as an FTO if they did not act like a terrorist organization.”
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The following month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that Mr. Pompeo would be replaced. he will reverse the decision The FTO designation of Ansarallah, also known as the Houthis, will be revoked due to the “dire humanitarian situation in Yemen.”
Blinken said: “We have heard from the United Nations, humanitarian organizations, bipartisan members of Congress and others that this designation could have a devastating impact on Yemeni people's access to basic supplies such as food and fuel. “I have listened to the warnings of others,” he said of his decision. time.
Members of the Houthi-affiliated Yemeni Coast Guard patrol the sea as demonstrators march through the Red Sea port city of Hodeida in solidarity with the people of Gaza, January 4, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images)
“This revocation is aimed at ensuring that relevant U.S. policies do not impede assistance to those already suffering from what has been called the world's worst humanitarian crisis,” he added. “We hope that by focusing on easing the humanitarian situation in Yemen, the Yemeni parties will also be able to focus on dialogue.”
The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a press release on Wednesday in which the department said: Provide some anti-terrorism general licenses Following the change in the status of the Houthis.
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A Houthi military helicopter approaches the cargo ship Galaxy Leader on November 19, 2023. The Houthis seized the ship in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen after threatening to seize all ships owned by Israeli companies. (Houthi Media Center, via AP)
These licenses authorize certain actions as exceptions to sanctions implemented as part of the terrorist designation, such as “providing agricultural products, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, replacement parts or components, or software updates,” “telecommunications related to 'postal and software updates'. Examples include “certain Internet-based communications,” “personal money transfers,” and “refined petroleum products.”
Goldberg pointed out that the Biden administration similarly tried to move Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the FTO to the SDGT list early in office, but the move failed because Congress blocked the move. did.
Posters of Qasem Suleimani, former commander of Iran's Quds Force, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, head of Lebanon's Hezbollah, and Houthi leader Mahdi al-Mashat, in Sabine Square in Sanaa, Yemen, January 4, 2024. people watching. (Reuters/Khaled Abdullah)
“Rob Malley believed that removing the IRGC from the FTO list would not be a problem since it would remain in the SDGT, but Congress was strongly discouraged by the political and economic relief that such a move would bring. There was a backlash,” Goldberg said. “Biden had no choice but to withdraw, and the Revolutionary Guards remain FTO.”
In behind-the-scenes interviews about the decision, senior government officials said the designation was “an appropriate means of putting pressure on the Houthis at this time.”
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“As with all sanctions, we want to ensure that our sanctions are effective in pressuring actors to cease activities that are problematic in achieving our foreign policy objectives. “There are,” one official said. “We believe the SDGT is doing this in a number of ways, including cutting off funding to the Houthis, putting pressure on them, and unequivocally condemning terrorism.”
“What we have come to is that we believe the SDGT provides greater flexibility to achieve our objective of delivering humanitarian assistance and protecting the broader well-being of the Yemeni people.” And targeting actions against the Houthis, while fulfilling our foreign policy objective of condemning their actions for what they are, constitutes unacceptable terrorism,” the official added. Another official on the call said the government “will continue to adjust its response accordingly if we choose to do so.”
A US aircraft carrier launches aircraft to attack military targets in Yemen. (U.S. Central Command, via X/Reuters)
Asked why the government didn't try to create a similar carve-out instead of delisting the group in the first place, officials said revoking the terrorist designation in 2021 was the “right step” and that ” There are unjust measures.” There are several things that have changed at the moment,” primarily in the transport of “critical supplies” to Yemen. Actions that go beyond the SDGT designation could “reverse the humanitarian situation” in Yemen.
The decision to re-register the Houthis as terrorists but not place them on the FTO list has already faced criticism from some members of Congress.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) criticized the administration for taking advantage of the SDGT designation by removing the Houthis from the FTO list in the first place, saying, “There is,” he said.
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A Houthi supporter burns a U.S. flag during a protest in front of the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, on January 18, 2021. (Hani Al-Ansi/Photo in partnership with Getty Images)
“The time has come to guide, protect, and call out.” [the Houthis] What they are: a foreign terrorist organization,” Turner said in a statement released after the Biden administration’s announcement.
The State Department had not responded to Fox News Digital's request for comment as of press time.
Fox News Digital's Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
