Washington, DC [US], January 18 : The United States has announced the designation of Ansarallah, also known as the Houthis, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in response to their continuing threats and attacks.
Following the rebels' attacks on ships in the Red Sea, the US started strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on Wednesday, prompting Washington to relist the group as "specially designated global terrorists."
Since November, the organisation with ties to Iran has been carrying out attacks that have hampered marine trade between Asia and Europe, reported Al Jazeera.
The Houthis claim that until Israel's war on Gaza ends, they will keep hitting targets, including ships that have ties to Israel.
"Today, in response to these continuing threats and attacks, the United States announced the designation of Ansarallah, also known as the Houthis, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist," White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.
"This designation is an important tool to impede terrorist funding to the Houthis, further restrict their access to financial markets, and hold them accountable for their actions. If the Houthis cease their attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, the United States will immediately reevaluate this designation," the statement said.
The designation will take effect 30 days from now, to ensure humanitarian carve-outs are in place.
"We are rolling out unprecedented carve-outs and licenses to help prevent adverse impacts on the Yemeni people. The people of Yemen should not pay the price for the actions of the Houthis. We are sending a clear message: commercial shipments into Yemeni ports on which the Yemeni people rely for food, medicine and fuel should continue and are not covered by our sanctions. This is in addition to the carveouts we include in all sanctions programs for food, medicine, and humanitarian assistance," the statement added.
"As President Biden has said, the United States will not hesitate to take further actions to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce," Sullivan said further.
Meanwhile, the United States carried out new strikes against Houthi ballistic missiles in Yemen on Tuesday, according to the US Central Command. The US carried out strikes after Houthi launched an anti-ship ballistic missile from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen into international shipping lanes in the Southern Red Sea.
The strikes on Tuesday, the third against Houthi since a US-led air and naval barrage hit dozens of targets last week and destroyed four missiles that the US Central Command said posed an imminent threat to merchant vessels and Navy ships travelling through the Red Sea and nearby waters, The New York Times reported.
The Houthi rebels, who are an Iran-aligned group, claimed to lhave aunched the strikes in retaliation for Israel's Gaza conflict.
The Houthis have launched several drone and missile attacks on Israel since it went to war with Hamas in Gaza. However, the majority of these projectiles were intercepted. Israel launched air strikes in Gaza and later rolled out its tanks across the border in response to the Hamas attacks on October 7, last year.
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