https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2021\/2\/5\/22269255\/biden-yemen-houthis-terrorist-organization<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“The Biden administration plans to remove Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels from the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list as soon as Friday, reversing a last-minute move by the Trump administration and reinforcing President Joe Biden\u2019s new approach to the conflict in Yemen.<\/p>\n
In mid-January, just days before Biden would be sworn into office, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced President Trump\u2019s intent to designate the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen as a \u201cforeign terrorist organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Houthis, formally known as Ansar Allah, are an armed rebel group of Zaydi Shia (a minority sect within Shia Islam) who have been fighting a civil war against Yemen\u2019s Saudi-backed government since 2014. That civil war morphed into an international one in March 2015, when Saudi Arabia and several of its allies in the Gulf decided to intervene militarily in the civil war, waging war against the Houthis. Meanwhile, Iran, Saudi Arabia\u2019s regional foe, has backed the Houthis.<\/p>\n
Critics said the move was an attempt by Pompeo to both hurt Iran by punishing one of its proxies and box in the incoming Biden administration as he headed out the door, but Pompeo seems to truly believe the decision was the right one.”<\/p>\n
…<\/p>\n
“President Joe Biden said the US would seek an elusive diplomatic settlement to the conflict, which would require the Houthis to strike a deal with Saudi Arabia, regional players, and possibly the US.<\/p>\n
The Biden administration then moved quickly to revoke the FTO label: It\u2019d be bad politics for the US to negotiate with a terrorist group.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s another reason to do so, too: It could help Yemen\u2019s most vulnerable. The war has killed about 233,000 people, mostly from indirect causes such as lack of food, water, and health services, while another roughly 24 million Yemenis require assistance to stay alive and fend off diseases like cholera.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s labeling of the Houthi rebels as terrorists made providing that assistance harder. Simply put, for aid groups to deliver assistance, they would have to negotiate with Houthi members who control a lot of Yemen\u2019s territory. But US law essentially says no aid organization can do deals with terrorists, even if it\u2019s to provide life-saving support to those in need<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a workaround if the US provides waivers to certain aid teams, but the Trump administration rushed its decision before working on and implementing an effective plan.”<\/p>\n
…<\/p>\n
“\u201cThis decision has nothing to do with our view of the Houthis and their reprehensible conduct, including attacks against civilians and the kidnapping of American citizens,\u201d a State Department official told me on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur action is due entirely to the humanitarian consequences of this last-minute designation from the prior administration, which the United Nations and humanitarian organizations have since made clear would accelerate the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crisis,\u201d the official said, adding that the US remains committed to protecting Saudi Arabia from further Houthi attacks.<\/p>\n
Activist and humanitarian groups praised the administration\u2019s decision.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[272,355,314,780,575,1151],"class_list":["post-4428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-foreign-policy","tag-international-relations","tag-joe-biden","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-yemen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4429,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428\/revisions\/4429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}