When the Biden administration revoked the “terrorist” group label from Yemen’s Houthi rebels last February, it cited the potentially “devastating” effects that the designation would have on Yemeni civilians’ access to life-saving humanitarian aid.
Faraan: But less than a year later, President Joe Biden has said re-designating the group is “under consideration“, a move advocates and rights groups say is not only disappointing but dangerous.
“It’s extremely disappointing that the Biden administration is considering this position when they know very well the humanitarian impact it would have,” Scott Paul, senior manager of humanitarian policy at Oxfam America, told Al Jazeera.
“A year ago, the administration heeded our warnings – and nothing has changed since then to improve the outlook for what these designations would mean.” The United Arab Emirates openly requested that the US re-blacklist the Houthis after the rebels carried out missile and drone attacks against Abu Dhabi on January 17, killing three people.
Days later, during a news conference on January 19 to mark his presidency’s one-year mark, Biden said reinstating the designation was “under consideration” but added “it’s going to be very difficult” to end the conflict in Yemen. The Emirati embassy in Washington, DC, welcomed Biden’s pledge. But to activists calling for an end to the years-long war in Yemen, the United States president’s remark is a betrayal of his election promise to work to end the conflict – and break from the policies of his predecessor Donald Trump, who provided uncritical support to the Saudi-led coalition.
That US-backed coalition, which included the UAE, intervened in Yemen in 2015 to push back the Houthis, who had taken over most of the country, including the capital Sanaa, and to restore the Gulf-backed government of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The war has brought Yemen to the verge of famine, sparking what the United Nations has said is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
“The designation [of the Houthis] would starve millions of Yemenis and he [Biden] knows that,” said Iman Saleh, general coordinator of the Yemeni Liberation Movement, an anti-war advocacy group in the US. “A designation would make him no different from Trump.” Saleh, who went on a hunger strike near the White House last year to demand an end to the Saudi-led coalition’s aid as well as the removal of a sea and air blockade on Yemen, also criticised the US administration’s stance of solely blaming the Houthis for prolonging the war. “It’s time for Biden to stop these games and fulfill his campaign promise: end the war in Yemen,” she told Al Jazeera.
