UN welcomes US' intent to revoke Houthi designation

United Nations, Feb 7 The UN has welcomed the US administration's intention to revoke the designation of the Houthi militia in Yemen as a terrorist organization.

The revocation will provide profound relief to millions of Yemenis who rely on humanitarian assistance and commercial imports to meet their basic survival needs, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said in a press statement on Saturday.

It will help ensure that much-needed essential goods reach them without significant delays, Xinhua news agency quoted Dujarric as saying.

At a time when Yemen is at significant risk of famine, maintaining commercial imports and humanitarian assistance in adequate quantities is essential, he added.

"We hope this positive development will contribute to UN efforts to resume a Yemeni-led and Yemeni-owned political process to reach an inclusive, negotiated settlement to the conflict."

On January 11, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US will designate Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organisation over its role in the ongoing conflict in the impoverished country.

The new administration on President Joe Biden announced on Friday that it would revoke the designation.

The move came a day after Biden said that the US will end its support for offensive operations in the Yemen conflict and that his country would step up diplomacy and support UN-led initiative to end the war.

"We are ending all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales," the President said in his first major foreign policy speech since taking office last month.

According to figures released by the UN in December 2020, more than 230,000 Yemenis have died in the six-year-old war, mostly because of a lack of food, health services and infrastructure.

The Houthi militia has intensified attacks on the Yemeni government-held cities in the past year that killed and injured hundreds of people, according to the government of the war-torn country.

Yemen has been mired in civil war since late 2014, when the Houthi rebels seized control of northern provinces and forced the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.

The Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in 2015 to support Hadi's government.

( With inputs from IANS )