Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States would designate Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen as a foreign terrorist organization, a move that aid groups have warned could undermine attempts to deal with what many see as the worst humanitarian crisis. of the world.
The appointment will take effect on January 19, the day before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, Pompeo said in a statement late Sunday. He said he also plans to designate three of the group’s leaders, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, Abd al-Khaliq Badr al-Din al-Houthi and Abdullah Yahya al Hakim, as specially designated global terrorists.
“These designations will provide additional tools to address Ansarallah’s terrorist activity and terrorism,” he said, referring to the group also known as Houthis.
The Trump administration was engaged in an internal debate over the formal designation of the Houthi rebels as a terrorist group, as aid groups and United Nations officials warned that the move could worsen what is already a humanitarian disaster in Yemen, four people familiar with the discussions told NBC News last month.
After six years of oppressive conflict that opposed the Houthi rebels to the internationally recognized Yemeni government, 80 percent of Yemen’s population of more than 29 million people need humanitarian aid and experts have declared conditions similar to hunger for almost 17,000 people, according to with the International Rescue Committee.
Since 2015, it is estimated that more than 112,000 people have died as a direct result of the violence.
The Houthi group is the de facto authority in northern Yemen and aid agencies need to work with it to provide assistance, according to Reuters.
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Pompeo said on Sunday that the United States plans to implement measures to reduce the impact of designations on certain humanitarian activities and imports into Yemen.
The measures will include the issuance of special licenses by the Treasury to allow US assistance to continue in Yemen, as well as the activities of certain international and non-governmental organizations, such as the United Nations, Pompeo said. Critical imports such as food and medicine will also be covered by licenses, he added.
An Oxfam spokesman disagreed, saying the consequences of the designations will be felt across the country, as banks, companies and humanitarian donors decide that they cannot risk operating in Yemen.
Save The Children said the designations could put thousands of young people at greater risk of starvation and disease at a time when millions of people are getting closer and closer to hunger.
And the Norwegian Refugee Council warned that the designation would represent yet another “devastating blow” to a country that is already in the midst of a “booming” humanitarian catastrophe.
The civil war in Yemen started in 2014, when Tehran-backed Houthi rebels took control of the capital Sanaa. A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia then intervened on behalf of the government in 2015, turning the conflict into a proxy war between regional enemies Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as internal conflict.
Tehran began providing money, weapons and training to Houthis after the Arab Spring, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based research institute.
The change on Sunday came as the Trump administration persists with its campaign of maximum pressure against Iran in the final weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Proponents of the designation see it as a final blow to Iranian influence in the Middle East and await the efforts of the next Biden government to re-engage Tehran in the 2015 nuclear deal.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Abigail Williams and Dan De Luce contributed.