Following last week's Abu Dhabi attack, Biden said he will consider reversing the decision. That would be the right move and he should do it immediately.
Biden's moves were a classic example of the failure of appeasement. Inevitably, the Iranian ayatollahs were not won over by these and other US placations. Instead they have become increasingly hard-nosed, demanding more US compromises in exchange for fewer restrictions on their nuclear weapons project -- a typical Iranian regime response to perceived weakness.
Ansar Allah still represents a direct terrorist threat to the US. In the past it has taken American citizens hostage and in 2016 fired anti-ship missiles at US vessels off the coast of Yemen.... Ansar Allah also jeopardises wider American interests in the region, as well as its allies.
So far the West has proved impotent in helping to end this devastating war, with all efforts at agreeing a negotiated settlement frustrated largely due to Ansar Allah's intransigence. Its violent offensive against Yemen's Marib Governorate that began last February is further evidence that — with Iranian backing — it continues to seek only the path of war. As events since Biden became president have shown, appeasement is the opposite of the answer.
It is essential that the US renew its strong opposition to Iran's expansionist actions, countering them at every opportunity.... An implacably hard-line stance towards these terrorists is essential to reassure US allies that there are consequences for violence against them.
Re-designation would not prevent Iran from continuing to fuel the Yemen insurgency but it would send a message of US strength to Tehran, one sorely needed in the months following the Afghanistan debacle and the administration's open desperation to renew the nuclear deal at almost any price.
The US administration could overcome this [problem of delivering humanitarian aid] by granting broad licenses and waivers to organizations and companies operating in and around Yemen, enabling essential supplies including food, fuel and medicines to be delivered. This would also need to take account of Ansar Allah's demands for bribes from aid agencies, and their propensity to steal aid for their own profit. This is a challenge the US administration has so far side-stepped but must now clarify.
No doubt such a licensing regime would introduce further complications to the already desperate and fraught humanitarian programmes — on top of the theft of aid by Ansar Allah. But such additional bureaucratic effort is a price that needs to be paid for the wider political and strategic benefits in countering Iranian and Ansar Allah violence.
Despite the depredations of Yemen's Ansar Allah (the Houthis), US President Joe Biden removed the group's Foreign Terrorist designation. Reversing the decision would be the right move and Biden should do it immediately. His administration could overcome the problem of delivering humanitarian aid by granting broad licenses and waivers to entities operating in and around Yemen, enabling essential supplies including food, fuel and medicines to be delivered. This would also need to take account of Ansar Allah's demands for bribes from aid agencies, and their propensity to steal aid for their own profit. Pictured: A girl waits to fill a jerrycan with water at a camp for displaced persons, in Hajjah province, Yemen, on January 16, 2022. (Photo by Essa Ahmed/AFP via Getty Images)
This week, Ansar Allah ("Supporters of God"), also known as the Houthis, an Iranian-backed armed militia in Yemen, launched ballistic missiles against civilian targets in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. This followed a missile and drone strike last week that killed three in Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE.
These are only the latest aerial attacks by Ansar Allah against the two countries, on top of the large-scale violence, deprivation and suffering it has inflicted on the civilian population of Yemen. Despite Ansar Allah's depredations, almost immediately after he took office US President Joe Biden removed the group's Foreign Terrorist designation that had been imposed by President Donald Trump.
Following last week's Abu Dhabi attack, Biden said he will consider reversing the decision. That would be the right move and he should do it immediately.
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