Biden vows the Houthis to restore its designation as a terrorist group
Many countries have moved to include the Houthi militia among terrorist groups due to its repeated crimes in the region, the most recent of which was targeting Abu Dhabi airport.
Lists of terrorism
US President Joe Biden said: “Putting Houthi militias back on terrorist lists is an issue under consideration, and this comes after major U.S. and international condemnation of Houthi aggression against the United Arab Emirates”.
President Joe Biden’s administration revoked the designation of the Yemeni Houthis as terrorist groups in February 2021, reversing the administration’s decision to include them.
The U.S. president’s speech came three days after Iranian-backed Houthi militias attacked civilian facilities in the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi.
It also came after a political and diplomatic marathon by the UAE that resulted in a major diplomatic victory to curb Houthi terrorism and stop the harm of those coup militias in the region.
High level talks
The American president’s statements came after the phone call between Sheikh Mohammed ben Zayed Al Nahyane, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and the American Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, where they stressed the need to take a firm stance on the terrorism of the Houthi militias.
The contact discussed the recent Houthi terrorist attacks on civilian sites and facilities in the United Arab Emirates, the threat they pose to the security and stability of the region, and the need to take a firm international stance against such aggressive practices.
The UAE submitted a letter to Norway, President of the Security Council for January, requesting a meeting of the Council on the Houthi terrorist attacks on Abu Dhabi.
The letter condemned the targeting of civilians and civilian objects by Houthi terrorist militias on UAE territory, in flagrant violation of international law, and called on the Security Council to condemn the Houthi attacks unequivocally and in one voice.
American pressure
US Republican Senator Ted Cruz said he was committed to pressuring the Joe Biden administration to quickly re-impose sanctions on the Houthis to stop their attacks.
On Twitter, Cruz said he was committed to pressuring the U.S. administration to quickly re-impose sanctions related to terrorist organizations regarding the Houthi group in order to stop their attacks.
He also criticized the Biden administration for removing the Houthis from the terror list, saying that “this move is reckless and would support the Iranian regime”.
Prominent Republican Senator James Inhofe, a member of the Armed Forces Committee in the U.S. Congress, also called Houthi militias “terrorist” and called for them to be placed on global
terrorist lists.
He condemned the Houthi targeting of civilian facilities in Abu Dhabi and demanded in a tweet from President Joe Biden’s administration to reclassify the Houthis as a terrorist organization.
“As I said last year, it was a mistake on the part of the Biden administration to remove the Houthis from the terror list, and this designation must now be restored”, he noted.
The Republican Representative in the United States Congress, Don Bacon, also condemned the Houthi terrorist attacks against civilian facilities in Abu Dhabi, pointing to the escalation of those operations since the removal of the group from the list of terrorism in the United States.
Bacon tweeted: “I condemn the terrorist attack on our friends in the UAE. These attacks have escalated since the US president removed the Iranian-backed Houthis from the list of foreign terrorist organizations”.
US House member Biden called for the group’s reinstatement on the terror list, saying: “We must re-list the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization and prevent Iran from sending weapons to Yemen”.
The US has been condemned in a series of tweets on social media, including the description of the Houthis as terrorist proxies of the Iranian regime by Jim Risch, a prominent Republican Senator and member of the Foreign Relations Committee in the US Congress.
