On Wednesday, the Biden administration re-designated Yemen’s Ansar Allah, also called the Houthis, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity, after de-listing the organization in February of 2021.
Ansar Allah remains uncowed, as spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam told Reuters that the designation would not at all affect the group’s operations in the Red Sea.
This designation is the latest in a series of US-led retaliation against the group for its blockade of the Red Sea, which Ansar Allah is undertaking in a show of solidarity with Palestine. Last week, the US and the UK began a bombing campaign against the nation. Following repeated bombings, Ansar Allah targeted a US warship operating off of the coast of Yemen.
“This decision will undermine the credibility of the American administration before the peoples of the world,” wrote Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, member of the Ansar Allah political bureau on X. “The terrorist is the one who supports and protects the perpetrators of genocide and not the one who fights to stop it.”
This designation reflects the US practice of sanctioning any nation or government that does not toe the line of US-approved foreign policy. The socialist island nation of Cuba has suffered vast shortages and financial crises due to its designation on the US State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Cuba has also been under a cruel blockade of over 60 years, implemented by the United States in retaliation for the island becoming a socialist nation. Other countries on the infamous SSOT list are the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Syria, and Iran. Iran in particular has been accused of being behind Ansar Allah offensives.
