Yemen: Washington designates the Houthis as "terrorists"
The U.S. government of Donald Trump announced Sunday evening, ten days before the end of his mandate, that it would put the Houthi rebels in Yemen on its blacklist of "terrorist" groups, which according to international organizations, risks aggravating the humanitarian crisis.
The head of U.S. diplomacy Mike Pompeo explained that he would notify Congress of this decision in order to strengthen the "deterrence against the harmful activities of the Iranian regime", support of the Yemeni rebel group against the government supported by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia allied with Washington.
Three leaders of the Houthis are also blacklisted, including their main leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi.
The sanctions will take effect January 19, the day before U.S. President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
They are intended to hold the Houthis, who control the capital Sana'a and most of northern Yemen, "accountable for their terrorist acts, including cross-border attacks threatening civilians, infrastructure and shipping," Pompeo said in an overnight statement.
The announcement had been awaited since the November 3 presidential election in the United States. Several non-governmental organizations and international institutions feared that President Trump, defeated in the ballot box, would seek to strike a major diplomatic blow against Iran, his arch-enemy in the Middle East, before the arrival at the White House of Joe Biden, who wants to resume dialogue with Tehran.
According to these organizations, this decision risks causing a paralysis in the delivery of humanitarian aid to Yemen. Having contacts with Houthi officials, managing taxes, using the banking system, paying medical staff, buying food and oil ... all this may be hindered by such a U.S. measure.
"Worst famine" in the world
After more than five years of war, Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula where 80% of the population now depends on international aid, is already in the grip of what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
And it is now "in imminent danger of the worst famine the world has seen in decades," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned at the end of November, urging Washington "not to rock the boat.
The Trump administration has only partially heeded these calls, deciding to go against the international consensus and to play the unilateral card.
"The United States recognizes that there are concerns about the impact these designations will have on the humanitarian situation in Yemen," Pompeo said. "We plan to put in place measures to reduce their impact on certain humanitarian activities and imports," he added.
The scope of the exemptions that will be granted in this regard will therefore be closely scrutinized.
Presenting his government's strategy as one that should encourage efforts to reach a "peaceful" solution, the outgoing secretary of state assured that he is ready "to work with UN officials and with international and non-governmental organizations" to minimize the consequences for the population.
As the threat loomed, the Houthis had decided in November that Donald Trump had no right to make such a decision after losing the presidential election.
"The elections are over and someone else won (...) The statements of this man have no meaning," Sultan Al-Samee, vice-president of the Political Council of Ansarullah, the name of the Houthi movement, told AFP.
"If he names Ansarullah as a terrorist, it will come from an incompetent person who is going completely crazy," he had hammered.
A major ally of Washington in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia has already classified the Houthis as a "terrorist" group in 2014 before taking the lead in March 2015 in a coalition supporting the Yemeni government against the rebels.
