US President Joe Biden has since his arrival to the White House been striving to eliminate the political legacy and executive decisions taken by his predecessor, Donald Trump. His latest move saw the American administration begin action to revoke the terrorist designation of the Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen.
Trusted American sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the administration was moving forward to drop the designation that was brought forward to Congress days before Trump’s term in office ended.
The revoking of the designation is in line with the demands of a majority of Congress members.
The designation of Houthi leader, Abdulmalek al-Houthi, and seven other militia leaders remains unclear. The sources and various media did not clarify whether Biden’s move will include them as well.
The new administration had stated that it was revising all decisions taken by the Trump administration.
The Houthi terror designation was met with concern by several Republican and Democratic senators, with many questioning its timing, effectiveness and impact on the humanitarian situation in Yemen.
Many senators still advocate the maximum pressure campaign that was adopted by Trump against Iran, while others have pressed Biden to drop the terror designation.
A State Department official told The Associated Press that the removal changed nothing about the Biden administration's views of the Houthis, who have targeted civilians and kidnapped Americans.
“Our action is due entirely to the humanitarian consequences of this last-minute designation from the prior administration, which the United Nations and humanitarian organizations have since made clear would accelerate the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
During a press briefing on Friday, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said: “Some 80 percent of Yemen’s civilian population lives under Houthi control. And so in the first instance, we want to make sure that we are not doing anything to make life worse or even more miserable for the long-suffering people of Yemen, which by most accounts is home to the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe.”
Yemeni officials argue against this assessment.
“Before we would be able to make any sort of decision to lift this, we would need to notify Congress as the first step, because we intend to get back to regular order in that regard,” continued Price.
“When it comes to Yemen and what you heard from President Biden (on Thursday), it is true that we are stepping up our diplomacy to end the war in Yemen (…) via the UN-led process to impose a ceasefire, open humanitarian channels and restore long-dormant peace talks,” he added.
“Working closely with the UN envoy, Martin Griffiths, and led now, by Special Envoy Tim Lenderking, our primary objective is to bring the parties together for a negotiated settlement that will end the war and the suffering of the Yemeni people. We have no illusions about how challenging this will be, but it is our priority and we recognize that there is no military solution to the war in Yemen,” he stressed.
He said that this does not apply to operations against ISIS and the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
“We understand that Saudi Arabia faces genuine security threats from Yemen and from others in the region, and so, we’ll look for ways to improve support for Saudi Arabia’s stability, to defend its territory against threats,” Price stated.
