US designation of Houthis as terrorists: A wrong move at a wrong time

As the lights were about to go out on Trump presidency, the outgoing US administration made two major announcements about the Middle East—terming Iran a home for Al Qaeda, and designating the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen as "terrorists". Both of these moves reek of desperation and miscalculation. While these can have dangerous consequences for both the US and Middle East, the branding of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in particular—effectively barring US citizens and entities from interacting financially with the group—is certain to unleash unspeakable horrors on the millions of Yemenis living on the edge of life and death.

Since the beginning of the war in late 2014 when the Houthis seized control of much of the country, including its capital Sanaa, Yemenis have suffered excruciating pain inflicted by the war, loss of loved ones and belongings, and invariably the pangs of hunger. The war has claimed more than a quarter of a million lives "including 131,000 from indirect causes such as lack of food, health services and infrastructure," according to a UN report.

Children, of course, have also succumbed to hunger and attacks. More than 3,153 children have fallen victim to the bloodthirst of the warring parties. "These senseless attacks, with so many children and women casualties, are horrific and inexcusable. Today, more families are grieving for children who died needlessly," said Altaf Musani, the chief UN humanitarian official in Yemen.

In the last three days of November 2020, 11 children—including a one-month-old baby—had been killed in attacks in Taizz and Al Hudaydah, said UNICEF. And so many of the dead remain nameless and faceless, their deaths not even properly mourned at times as no one is left behind to mourn them.

While the world community's failure to stop the killing of innocent children is a shame in itself, what's even more shameful is exacerbating the factors that are causing these deaths. The US move at this critical point of the Yemen war—where all parties, including the Saudis that along with the United Arab Emirates assembled a US-backed military coalition in an attempt to restore the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, are trying to come to a resolution—is one such act. The designation of the Houthis as terrorists, which came into effect on January 19, a day before the Biden administration was supposed to take office, would unleash uncertainties, if not mayhem, at many levels and for all parties involved, including the aid agencies working in the field. 

First of all, the designation would exponentially increase the possibility of mass-scale famine. Yemen's food supply chain is heavily dependent on imports—almost 90 percent of the food coming into the country is through imports, and almost all are procured through commercial channels. In the face of such a designation, however, many suppliers would not want to get embroiled in the mess, especially due to fears of getting caught in regulatory complications with the US, which might affect their business or even land them in prison. The United States' assurance that it will issue licenses to allow some aid or imports does not hold water either, as "those licences do not yet exist, nor will it solve the problem, given that humanitarian agencies do not import most of Yemen's food," says Relief Web.

The Yemenis are already stockpiling whatever goods and supplies they can get their hands on, because no one knows how the food supply chain would work once the designation is enforced. Ships bringing in food to Yemen have to pay port fee to the Houthis. And the supplies are provided to the Yemenis by government institutions controlled by the Houthis.

The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, suggested that sixteen million people are feared to face famine in 2021. With regard to the US' decision to brand the Houthis as terrorists, he warned that "every decision the world makes right now must take this into account."

This hasty, last-minute decision by the Trump administration has left the aid workers and food importers vulnerable in a crisis that has already claimed hundreds and thousands of lives, and pushed millions into a spiralling famine. While the Trump administration officials said with regard to aid and supplies that they are "planning to put in place measures", what those measures are remain unclear. The New York Times reported that many diplomats, aid groups and lawmakers have suggested that "clear-cut legal protections should have been enacted in tandem with the terrorism designation to prevent another barrier to assisting one of the world's poorest states."

And of course, provoking the Houthis with this time-insensitive decision has the potential to jeopardise the efforts of the UN to bring the warring parties to the table. In response to the recent development, the Houthis might refuse to sit at the negotiating table and even sever any backchannel they might have opened with the Saudis or the UN to resolve the situation. In view of the ground reality, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's suggestion that the action was taken "to advance efforts to achieve a peaceful, sovereign and united Yemen that is both free from Iranian interference and at peace with its neighbours" does not make much sense. If anything, in the wake of such a move, the Houthis might get closer to Iran and strengthen their ties with them further. While the Houthis should be held accountable for their crimes, this is not the right approach or the right context, given that so many lives are at stake.

With various organisations including the UN, human rights groups and civil society now calling on the US government to reverse the designation of the Houthis as terrorists, pressure is mounting on the new Biden administration to address this issue at the earliest.

What is understandable from this latest move by the Trump administration is that it is intentionally creating complications in the Middle East, especially with regard to Iran and its allies, where the Biden administration will have little room for rapprochement manoeuvres. And it has done so for an obvious reason: to push Trump and company's Israel-First Middle East policy. But every action comes with a price, and for this particular one, it will be the lives of millions who are already struggling to survive amidst war, famine and a global pandemic. And the US will be responsible for every life lost in Yemen due to this recent development.

The Biden administration will have little time to act, but it must do so and soon to save millions of life from becoming the collateral damage of America's irresponsible move.

Tasneem Tayeb is a columnist for The Daily Star. Her Twitter handle is: @TayebTasneem