CAIRO (AP) – Iran-backed Yemeni rebels on Monday rejected a US proposal to name them a terrorist organization in the last days of the Trump administration, while a leading aid agency warned that this designation would deal another “devastating blow” to the impoverished war-torn nation.
The planned appointment, announced by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday afternoon, would take effect a day before President-elect Joe Biden was sworn in on January 20th. It was unclear whether Biden would overturn the decision.
Yemen is mired in a disastrous humanitarian crisis, with millions of people in large areas of the country on the brink of starvation as a result of six years of civil war.
Pompey said he was proceeding with the designation of the rebels, known as houthis, along with separate terrorist designations for the three main rebel leaders. At the same time, he promised that the U.S. would help absorb the impact on aid groups and allow humanitarian assistance to continue flowing into Yemen.
Hours later, several senior rebel officials clashed with Pompey’s announcement.
“We are not afraid,” Mohammed Ali al-Houthi tweeted. “America is the source of terrorism. He is directly involved in killing and starving the Yemeni people. ”
Others said the appointment was an attempt to divert attention from the U.S. political crisis in the wake of the Capitol’s deadly riots and efforts to oust President Donald Trump. “We are honored to be terrorists and gangsters of the world,” tweeted Houthis media chief Abdel-Rahman al-Ahnoumi.
In Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh condemned the designation as an action “doomed to failure” at the end of the Trump administration. He said the United States should negotiate with Yemen’s legitimate representatives – in reference to the Houthis – to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Yemen’s internationally recognized government described the Houthis as a “terrorist militia” and, in a statement issued by its foreign ministry, called for a “continuation of the escalation and intensification of political and legal pressure on the Houthis.” to pave the way for a peaceful settlement of the conflict. ”
Yemen, at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is the scene of the worst humanitarian disaster in the world. The war, which has killed more than 112,000 people, has left most of the nearly 30 million people in need of humanitarian aid. The war
The conflict began in 2014 when Houthis ravaged the north and the capital, Sanaa. The following year, the Saudi-led coalition intervened to wage war against the Houthis in an attempt to restore power to the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
In early January, the Hadi government accused the rebels of firing ballistic missiles at a plane with cabinet members after landing in the port city of Aden, an attack that killed more than 25 people. The Houthis denied that they were behind the strike.
After the attack, Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed told the Associated Press that the rebels must “realize that if these criminal and terrorist operations continue there will be no path to peace.”
At the time, Abdulmalik said the terrorist designation would be a step “of great importance” and “help establish peace in Yemen.”
Previous rounds of peace negotiations and ceasefire agreements have faltered and aid agencies, which operate mostly in Houthi-controlled areas, fear that any target of the rebel group will affect the entire population.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the main humanitarian agencies active in the country, said Monday that the sanctions planned by Pompeo “will hamper the ability of aid agencies to respond” to the humanitarian needs of millions of Yemenis.
“Yemen’s faltering economy will have another devastating blow,” said Mohamed Abdi, the group’s director for Yemen. “Introducing food and medicine into Yemen (a country that depends on 80% of imports) will be even more difficult.”
Relief organizations have long warned that sanctions could be catastrophic for efforts to help Yemeni civilians trapped in conflict between Houthis and the Yemeni government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition at war with the rebels.
In his announcement, Pompeo said the U.S. recognizes that the designation could affect the humanitarian situation and would take steps to counter it.
“We plan to put in place measures to reduce its impact on certain humanitarian activities and imports into Yemen,” he said. These measures will include the issuance of special licenses by the U.S. Treasury to allow U.S. aid to continue flowing into Yemen and for humanitarian organizations to continue working there, he said.
Separately, the United States has suspended millions of dollars from its aid donations to Houthi-controlled areas after reporting theft and looting aid. UN agencies have long complained that rebels are stealing and redirecting food aid.
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Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.