CAIRO (AP) – Yemen’s Iranian-backed rebels on Monday rejected the US move to denounce a terrorist organization in the last days of the Trump administration, while a leading aid agency warned that such a designation a “devastating blow” to the poor and war-torn nation.
The planned appointment, announced late Sunday by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, will take effect a day before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20. It was not clear whether Biden would reverse the decision.
Yemen is embroiled in a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with millions of people in large parts of the country on the brink of starvation as a result of six years of civil war.
Pompeo said it was continuing to designate the rebels, known as Houthis, along with separate terrorist designations for the three top rebel leaders. At the same time, he promised that the US would help absorb the impact on aid programs and that humanitarian aid could flow to Yemen.
Hours later, several senior rebel figures toppled Pompeo’s announcement.
“We are not afraid,” Mohammed Ali al-Houthi tweeted. “America is the source of terrorism. It is directly involved in the death and starvation of the Yemeni people. ”
Others said the designation was an attempt to divert attention from the US political crisis in the wake of the Capitol’s deadly riots and attempts to accuse President Donald Trump. “We are honored to be terrorists and the world’s gangsters,” Houthis media official Abdel-Rahman al-Ahnoumi tweeted.
In Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh condemned the designation as a “doomed to failure” action at the end of Trump’s administration. He said the US would eventually have to negotiate with the Yemeni legal representatives – referring to the Houthis – to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.
The internationally recognized Yemeni government described the Houthis as a “terrorist militia” and in a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry called for a “continuation of the escalation and intensification of the political and legal pressure on the Houthis”. to pave the way for a peaceful solution to the conflict. ”
Yemen, on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. The war killed more than 112,000 people, and the majority of the country’s nearly 30 million people needed humanitarian aid. The war
The conflict began in 2014 when the Houthi’s overran 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 internationally recognized President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s government to power.
In early January, the Hadi government accused the rebels of firing ballistic missiles aimed at a plane carrying cabinet members after landing in the southern port city of Aden, an attack that killed more than 25 people. The Houthi’s denied being behind the strike.
After the attack, Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed told The Associated Press that the rebels “must realize that if they continue these criminal and terrorist operations, there will be no path to peace.”
At the time, Abdulmalik said that a terrorist order would be a step of great importance and that it would help establish peace in Yemen.
Previous rounds of peace talks and ceasefire agreements have faltered and aid agencies, which operate mostly in Houthi-controlled areas, fear any target of the rebel group will affect the entire population.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the most important humanitarian agencies active in the country, said on Monday that Pompeo’s planned sanctions would hamper the ability of aid agencies to respond to the humanitarian needs of millions of Yemenis.
“Yemen’s faltering economy will suffer a further devastating blow,” said Mohamed Abdi, the group’s director for Yemen. “Getting food and medicine to Yemen – a country that is 80% dependent on imports – will become even more difficult.”
Aid organizations have long warned that sanctions could be disastrous for efforts to help starving Yemeni civilians caught in the conflict between the Houthis and the Yemeni government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition at war with the rebels.
In its announcement, Pompeo said that the US acknowledges that the designation could affect the humanitarian situation and that he would take action 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 US Treasury to allow US aid to flow to Yemen and for humanitarian organizations to continue there, he said.
Separately, the US has suspended millions of dollars from their aid donations to Houthi-controlled areas following reports of theft and looting of aid. UN agencies have long complained that rebels are stealing and diverting food aid.
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Associated Press author Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.