Biden Regime Re-Designates Houthis as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists”
Jose Nino
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On January 17, 2024, the Biden regime announced that it was re-classifying Yemen’s Houthi rebels as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,”
Such a move would make it more difficult to deliver aid to Yemen and complicate the peace process between the Saudis and Houthis.
President Joe Biden initially scrapped the SDGT designation on the Houthis back in February 2021 in addition to “Foreign Terrorist Organization” designation, which was applied by the Trump administration. Both designations were accompanied with economic sanctions, but the FTO is seen as more harsh and would essentially criminalize the delivery of aid to the parts of Yemen under Houthi control, where 70-80% of Yemenis live.
However, sanctions under the SDGT designation could also prevent aid deliveries. The State Department stated that the Biden regime would issue exemptions for “certain transactions related to the provision of food, medicine, and fuel, as well as personal remittances, telecommunications and mail, and port and airport operations.”
Dave DeCamp of Antiwar.com observed that American and British air attacks in Yemen have already compelled several aid organizations to halt services. From 2015-2022, the US backed a vicious Saudi/United Arab Emirati war against the Houthis that consisted of airstrikes directed at Yemen’s food supply and a starvation blockade. In that period, at least 377,000 people were killed in the war, which includes 60% who died of starvation and disease caused by this brutal siege.
The SDGT designation could also throw a wrench in the forging of a Yemen peace deal.
Per a report by The Guardian, the Saudis and Houthis have forged a deal that has satisfied all parties. The first phase consists of the depositing of money into accounts for the compensation of civil salaries for workers in areas under Houthi control and fully opening airports and seaports that have been subject to a harsh blockade. The SDGT designation or other kinds of sanctions could prevent the implementation of the first phase.
The US has escalated this conflict through its airstrikes against Yemen. The Houthis have responded in kind by expanding their attacks to go after American and British commercial vessels. Houthis spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam has indicated that the rebel group will not back down in its attacks. He said to Al Jazeera that the Houthis would “not back down in its position in support of the Palestinian people.”
The Yemen conflict was very much predictable. Had the US not stuck its nose in the Yemeni Civil War by backing the Saudi government, the US and its satrapies would not not be mired in this predicament.
The only way to go back to foreign policy sanity is for the US to throw out the very interventionist crowd that gets it into these foreign policy quagmires.
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