U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday his administration is considering re-designating Yemen's Houthi movement as an international terrorist organization following drone and missile attacks on the United Arab Emirates claimed by the group.
The Houthis, a militia group that now controls much of Yemen, claimed responsibility for the attack, which Emiratis say used both missiles and drones, and started fires at a fuel depot and international airport.
The attack led Emiratis and Saudis to step up months of demands that the US restore its terrorist designation for the Houthis. Biden said Wednesday returning the terrorist designation was “under consideration.”
The UAE welcomed Biden’s comment, the Emirati Embassy said on Twitter. The “case is clear – launching ballistic and cruise missiles against civilian targets, sustaining aggression, diverting aid to Yemeni people,” it said.
Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed Al-Jaber, said on Twitter on Thursday that the United Nations and global community must not show leniency and hold the Houthi movement accountable because "it encourages other terrorist organisations to act similarly".
His defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, expressed solidarity for the UAE’s security in a conversation earlier Wednesday with Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Zayed.
The UAE was a member of the Saudi-led coalition that entered Yemen’s civil war in 2015, after the Houthis had overrun the capital of Sanaa the previous year and ousted the country’s president from power.
As part of the initiative he launched last year, Biden appointed veteran U.S. diplomat Timothy Lenderking a special envoy. The State Department also reversed a last-minute Trump administration decision placing the Houthis on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist groups, subjecting them to financial sanctions.
No comments:
Post a Comment