Yemen Monitor/Washington/Exclusive:
US is considering a new, tougher official designation for the Houthi armed group that would put it in the same category as al-Qaeda, according to ABC News on Monday.
In an interview with ABC News before the Houthis and the Israeli occupation exchanged attacks over the weekend, US Special Envoy to Yemen Tim Lenderking said: a tougher official designation for the Houthis was increasingly under consideration.
“There’s growing talk now about designation under [the Foreign Terrorist Organization] statute, which we feel would have some exemptions to enhance our ability to support humanitarian and commercial activity in Yemen,” the special envoy said.
ABC News said that the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization designation, which would put the Houthis in the same category as al-Qaeda, would make it more difficult for international humanitarian organizations to operate inside Yemen by requiring them to obtain a license to deal with the Houthis, who control major ports including Hodeidah and the capital Sana’a.
“The Houthis are the ones who are driving this and putting these options on the table that we all thought, a few months ago, when Joe Biden first took office, were not the right way to go,” Lenderking said.
“But when the Houthis are acting very clearly like a terrorist organization, then that does force this option to be raised,” the diplomat added.
In January, the US State Department formally designated the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group (SDGT) but stopped short of designating them as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. This came after nearly three years of the Biden White House removing the Houthis’ terrorist designations as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), which were imposed by the Trump administration in its final weeks.
The difference between the two is that the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation carries much stronger sanctions and restrictions, including visa bans and civil liability for terrorist attacks. The SDGT designation, on the other hand, “includes broad exemptions for transactions related to oil, ports, and airports.”
