Chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council Dr. Rashad al-Alimi urged on Monday the European Union to designate the Iran-backed Houthi militias as terrorist.
The United States had re-designated the Houthis as terrorist earlier this month in wake of the attacks they have been carrying out against commercial traffic in the Red Sea.
As of Monday, the Houthis have carried out 34 missile and drone attacks against vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in response to Israel's war on Gaza.
Since January 12, the United States has carried out 10 strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen in retaliation to their attacks.
Meanwhile, Denmark on Monday sent a frigate to the Red Sea, where it will participate in a US-led coalition to safeguard commercial traffic against the Houthi attacks.
Denmark, home to shipping company Maersk, is sending the 139-meter Iver Huitfeldt frigate to the area as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian formed last month to protect merchant vessels.
“If you think that the answer to the Houthis is to simply allow them to terrorize free world trade, you are on the wrong track," Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told reporters on board the frigate before it departed the Korsor naval base.
"That is also why we, together with the Americans and the British, are now showing responsibility and sending a signal that we will not tolerate what is happening,” the minister said.
Alimi received in Riyadh on Monday European Union Ambassador to Yemen Gabriel Munuera Vinals for talks on the latest local developments and the opportunities to resume the United Nations-mediated efforts to revive the political process.
They also tackled the impact the terrorist Houthi attacks in the Red Sea are having on international security and peace and the Yemeni people, reported the state news agency Saba.
Vinals briefed Alimi on the EU’s position on the Houthi escalation, adding that it continues to fully support the efforts of UN envoy Hans Grundberg to launch a comprehensive political process.
Alimi praised Europe for the support it has shown the PLC, government and Yemeni people.
He stressed however, the importance of the Europeans “taking punitive measures against the Houthi militias and designating them as a terrorist organization.”
Alimi had previously said the American and British strikes against the Houthis would not yield a solution to the crisis in Yemen. Rather, he underlined the need to support government forces as they seek to recapture Hodeidah and state institutions that have been seized by the Houthis.
On the ground, the Houthis have pursued military escalation. They launched attacks on liberated areas in the Saada and al-Jawf border regions.
The fiercest attack was reported in the Bihan area in the liberated Shabwa province.
The Giants Brigades clashed with the Houthis in Bihan, leaving some 20 of their members dead.
Commenting on the unrest, PLC member Faraj al-Bahsani said the militias “don't don’t believe in peace and want to drag the region towards conflict.”
