Yemen’s Huthi rebels accused Washington on Thursday of designating them a terrorist group for supporting the Palestinian people, their stated motive for months of attacks on Israel and in the Red Sea.On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to once again blacklist the Iran-backed rebels as a “foreign terrorist organisation”, moving to reimpose the more restrictive categorisation after it was dropped by his predecessor.”The American designation targets all the Yemeni people and their honourable position in support of the oppressed Palestinian people,” said a Huthi statement quoted by the rebel-affiliated Al-Masirah TV channel. “This reflects the degree of bias on the part of the current American administration in favour of the usurper Zionist entity (Israel).”The Huthis are part of Iran’s “axis of resistance”, a collection of militant groups in the region arrayed against Israel. For more than a year they have waged a campaign of attacks on merchant vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that has disrupted global shipping.They have also repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which was sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.The Huthis have said their attacks are in solidarity with the Palestinians. – ‘Pretext’ for sanctions -Iran too condemned the group’s terror designation on Thursday, with foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei saying the blacklisting was “a pretext for imposing inhumane sanctions against the Yemeni people”, describing it as “unjustified and baseless”.Iran insists that its allied groups act independently. Israel, meanwhile, welcomed the move, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar calling it “an important step in fighting terror and combating the destabilising elements in our region”.The Huthis were blacklisted during Trump’s first term, but were removed in 2021 after his successor Joe Biden took office.The Biden administration last year put the Huthis back on the list of “specially designated global terrorist” groups, a slightly less severe classification that still allowed for humanitarian aid to reach the war-torn country.Trump’s redesignation order may take several weeks to come into effect. Yemen has been at war since 2014, when the Huthis forced the internationally recognised government out of the capital Sanaa and much of the north and the Red Sea coast.The conflict has led to a dire humanitarian crisis, with a senior UN official saying more than 19.5 million people in Yemen will need assistance in 2025, including around 17 million who cannot meet their basic food needs.The Huthis urged the “international community and human rights organisations on Thursday to condemn” the terrorist designation, saying it would “have negative repercussions on the humanitarian situation in Yemen”.burs/smw/kir
Yemen’s Huthi rebels accused Washington on Thursday of designating them a terrorist group for supporting the Palestinian people, their stated motive for months of attacks on Israel and in the Red Sea.On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to once again blacklist the Iran-backed rebels as a “foreign terrorist organisation”, moving to reimpose the more restrictive categorisation after it was dropped by his predecessor.”The American designation targets all the Yemeni people and their honourable position in support of the oppressed Palestinian people,” said a Huthi statement quoted by the rebel-affiliated Al-Masirah TV channel. “This reflects the degree of bias on the part of the current American administration in favour of the usurper Zionist entity (Israel).”The Huthis are part of Iran’s “axis of resistance”, a collection of militant groups in the region arrayed against Israel. For more than a year they have waged a campaign of attacks on merchant vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that has disrupted global shipping.They have also repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which was sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.The Huthis have said their attacks are in solidarity with the Palestinians. – ‘Pretext’ for sanctions -Iran too condemned the group’s terror designation on Thursday, with foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei saying the blacklisting was “a pretext for imposing inhumane sanctions against the Yemeni people”, describing it as “unjustified and baseless”.Iran insists that its allied groups act independently. Israel, meanwhile, welcomed the move, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar calling it “an important step in fighting terror and combating the destabilising elements in our region”.The Huthis were blacklisted during Trump’s first term, but were removed in 2021 after his successor Joe Biden took office.The Biden administration last year put the Huthis back on the list of “specially designated global terrorist” groups, a slightly less severe classification that still allowed for humanitarian aid to reach the war-torn country.Trump’s redesignation order may take several weeks to come into effect. Yemen has been at war since 2014, when the Huthis forced the internationally recognised government out of the capital Sanaa and much of the north and the Red Sea coast.The conflict has led to a dire humanitarian crisis, with a senior UN official saying more than 19.5 million people in Yemen will need assistance in 2025, including around 17 million who cannot meet their basic food needs.The Huthis urged the “international community and human rights organisations on Thursday to condemn” the terrorist designation, saying it would “have negative repercussions on the humanitarian situation in Yemen”.burs/smw/kir
