“As noted by Designated Secretary (Antony) Blinken, the State Department has initiated a review of Ansarallah’s terrorist designations,” said the spokesman.
Blinken, President Joe Biden’s choice of secretary of state, said at his appointment hearing Tuesday that his “deep concern about the designation that has been made is that at least on the surface it seems to achieve nothing particularly practical in advancing efforts against the Houthis and to bring them back to the negotiating table, making it even harder than ever to provide humanitarian assistance to people who desperately need it. “
The designation of a foreign terrorist organization was quickly condemned by humanitarian organizations, diplomats and bipartisan members of Congress, who fear that it could further inflame the local situation, damage the UN peace talks and exacerbate the country’s humanitarian crisis.
The State Department spokesman told CNN that “they will not publicly discuss or comment on internal deliberations regarding this review.
“However, with the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, we are working as fast as we can to conduct the review and make a decision,” they said.
Yemen is involved in a civil war of years that pitted a coalition supported by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against Houthi rebels supported by Iran, a Shi’ite political and military organization in northern Yemen. The conflict claimed thousands of civilian lives and plunged the country into a humanitarian crisis.
The State Department spokesman said they “strongly believe that Ansarallah” – another name for the Houthis – “needs to change their behavior”, adding that “he has a significant responsibility for the humanitarian catastrophe and insecurity in Yemen”.
“At the same time, we must also ensure that we are not impeding the provision of humanitarian assistance,” they said.
Pompeo said in his statement announcing the designation that the United States was “planning to implement measures to reduce its impact on certain humanitarian activities and imports into Yemen”.
“We express our willingness to work with relevant officials at the United Nations, with international and non-governmental organizations and other international donors to address these implications,” he said.
However, humanitarian organizations and lawmakers have expressed serious concerns that the measures would not be sufficient.
Mercy Corps CEO Tjada D’Oyen said the Trump administration’s designation of the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization “would undermine the burden of the humanitarian response in Yemen, threatening the lives of millions of Yemenis who depend on humanitarian aid”.
The head of the International Rescue Committee called the decision “pure diplomatic hooliganism”.
“This policy, in the name of tying the Houthis, will really tie the humanitarian community and international diplomacy. The opposite is necessary – effective pressure on all parties to the conflict to stop using civilians as hostages in their war games, ”he said. David Miliband said.
The spokesman said the United States “will continue to support the efforts of UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths to bring the parties to political consensus.”
“Our focus is to support a comprehensive political agreement that will end the conflict and resolve the dire humanitarian situation,” they said.
At his nomination hearing on Tuesday, Blinken told lawmakers that the Biden government plans to end its support for the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen.
“The president-elect has made it clear that we will end our support for the Saudi Arabian-led military campaign in Yemen. And I think we will work on that in a very short time, once the president-elect is president, for the reasons you cited,” said Blinken.
Asked what the end of that support would be like, the nominee for the first US diplomat said: “It seems, first of all, to make sure we understand exactly what kind of support we are currently offering and which one we need to examine, and then withdraw it . “
“But I want to make it clear, I think we have to be in close contact with Saudi Arabia, with our partner there. We need to be very clear about what we are doing, why we are doing something and talking about it,” said Blinken. “But the main point is that for the reasons we discussed, we believe that continuing with this support is not in the national interest.”