Now we are tracking some breaking news related to the Israel Hamas War it involves the houthi rebels in Yemen you may recall they have been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aiden reporter Benji H is on this story he joins me now with the
Latest from Washington we’re talking about a redesignation what do we know so far that’s right the United States officially designating the houthis as a terror organization this follows as you are mentioning a Spate of attacks by the iran-backed militants on ships in the Red Sea commercial ships uh they say
It’s in solidarity with Palestinians amid the Israel Hamas war in Gaza the United States and Western allies have launched uh strikes in response in recent days this was actually a designation more broadly by the Donald Trump Administration it was reversed by current Secretary of State Anthony
Blinkin in 2021 in an effort to try to get more humanitarian Aid into yen Wednesday’s decision to relist them more narrowly as quote a specially designated terrorist group means two main things its members will be banned from being on us soil and American institutions will have to freeze houy assets this is part
Of a diplomatic effort to try to push the houthis away from what the United States sees as its aggressive actions we have a statement from National Security adviser Jake Sullivan it says that the attacks the that have been conducted by the houthis quote fixed fits the textbook definition of terrorism he says
This designation will take effect in 30 days time that is to ensure a robust humanitarian carveout is in place so that the US action targets houthis and not the people of Yemen who have been suffering from that Civil War there and he goes on to say the United States will
Not hesitate to take further actions to protect our people and the free flow of international Commerce the White House insists that these ongoing threats from the houthi rebels in Yemen must be counted through International pressure in order to avoid an impact on the global economy and also to ensure that
There is not an escalation of conflicts in the Middle East and certainly Benji we would have to forgive people for believing that there might be some perceived kind of fluidity on this issue because as you mentioned it was back in 20121 that there was a decision uh to
Remove the houthis from the list so is there any suggestion that the US would reconsider now this decision it could go in one of two ways because there are members of Congress who actually F the US should go further that they should list Iran the state
Which funds the houthis as some sort of terrorist organization the Administration has not hinted at that they say that this is an aim and effort to try to get the houthis to change their ways and therefore if they do there could be a reconsidering this was announced officially in a statement just
Moments ago from Secretary of State Anthony blinkin who says if the houthi sees their attacks in the Red Sea the United States will re-evaluate this designation but here’s the thing the houthis are vowing not to back down as we saw the US and Western allies launch those targeted strikes on Friday and one
Or two that have happened since we heard from the head of that houthi group who said that they pledged to retaliate by quote burning America’s battleships Benji thank you for the latest on this that is reporter Benji hire in Washington
The U.S. has returned Yemen’s Houthi rebels to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday the decision to re-designate the group was made because of ‘unprecedented attacks’ in the Red Sea.
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