U.S. Yemen Envoy: We Picked Weaker Terror Designation for Houthis for Same Reason We Delisted Them in ’21

On Wednesday’s “PBS NewsHour,” U.S. Special Envoy to Yemen Timothy Lenderking defended the softer terrorist designation that the Biden administration put on the Houthis because it “gives us a little bit more flexibility to have carve-outs and licenses so that essential commodities, food, fuel, medicine, humanitarian supplies, can continue to reach the Yemeni people” which he cited as one reason why the designation was removed in the first place.

“NewsHour” Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent Nick Schifrin asked, “Why not, then, relist them as a foreign terrorist organization, as the Trump administration did, which is essentially a higher-level designation?”

Lenderking answered, “We felt that the FTO, or the foreign terrorist organization designation was not something that was appropriate to the current circumstances. Maybe we would go to that, but I hope we don’t have to. What the SDGT does, as you mentioned, is prohibit certain types of interactions from the Houthi organization, but it also gives us a little bit more flexibility to have carve-outs and licenses so that essential commodities, food, fuel, medicine, humanitarian supplies, can continue to reach the Yemeni people. There’s no desire to hurt the Yemeni people, who’ve already suffered from eight years of war.”

Lenderking also defended the decision to delist the Houthis by stating that the Biden administration made Yemen a foreign policy priority, and because of that, we’ve “been able to continue pushing humanitarian supplies.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett