AL-MUKALLA: The leader of Yemen’s Houthi militia, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, condemned the US on Thursday for its decision to redesignate his movement as a terrorist organization, accusing Washington of punishing the group for its support of the Palestinian people.
“The American attacks and classifications have no significance and are a step that occurs solely in the context of defending Israel’s crimes,” he said during a televised speech. He vowed his group will continue to launch missile and drone attacks against Israeli targets, including ships in the Red Sea with connections to the country.
“We will continue targeting ships linked to Israel and the bombing of occupied Palestine until the aggression and blockade on Gaza ends,” he said.
His comments came as opponents of the Houthis, inside and outside of Yemen, applauded the US decision and called for harsher sanctions and penalties to be imposed on the group.
The Biden administration on Wednesday confirmed the redesignation of the Houthis as a terrorist group, in an attempt to put pressure on them to halt their attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The classification of the group as Specially Designated Global Terrorist gives the US the power to severely penalize the militia by cutting off its funding and weapons supplies and reducing its capacity to damage the security of international commerce. US President Joe Biden removed the Houthis from the list in early 2021 to make it easier to provide aid amid concerns about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Other prominent members of the Houthis’ political and military wings joined the group’s leader in condemning the terror designation and accusing the US of complicity in Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza.
Dhaif Allah Al-Shami, the group’s information minister, accused Washington of using a carrot-and-stick approach in an attempt to coerce the group into halting its attacks on ships in the Red Sea in support of Palestine, and said it would not succeed.
In a message posted on social media site X, he wrote: “The threat to place (the Houthis) on the American terrorist list is a desperate ploy that has no impact on the Yemeni people. On the contrary, it will boost their faith, strength, and confidence in their position.”
Yemen’s internationally recognized government and other opponents and critics of the Houthis welcomed the redesignation of the group as terrorists and urged other nations to follow Washington’s example.
Yemeni Information Minister Muammar Al-Eryani described the redesignation as an “important” step that will highlight the Houthi threat to international maritime traffic.
He said that since the Houthis took control of the country through force in late 2014, they have committed numerous crimes that merit the label of terrorism, including attacks on residential areas using missiles made in Iran and packed with explosives, kidnappings, killings, the torture of abducted women, the demolition of homes, the recruitment of children, laying landmines, repression of dissidents, and other atrocities.
“The international community is required to intensify pressure on the Houthi militia to force it to abandon its terrorist approach, engage seriously and in good faith in deescalation efforts and bringing peace,” the minister added.
Yemeni human rights campaigners, journalists and politicians forced to flee their country for fear of Houthi reprisals similarly applauded the US reclassification of the group as terrorists.
Fahed Al-Sharafi, a Yemeni journalist from the province of Saada, a Houthi stronghold, and consultant to the information minister, said the US had shown its support for the oppressed people of Yemen who have suffered as a result of Houthi atrocities.
“The decision prevailed for justice and truth against a local and multinational terrorist gang that murdered, displaced, and destroyed everything beautiful in Yemen. This decision should be welcomed,” he wrote in a message posted on X.
