Houthis taken off the U.S. Terrorist List, Yemen War to End

Secretary Blinken’s Call with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saudi

The below is attributable to Secretary of State Spokesperson Ned Price:

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with the Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.  Secretary Blinken and the Foreign Minister discussed regional security, counterterrorism, and cooperation to deter and defend against attacks on the Kingdom.  The Secretary outlined several key priorities of the new administration including elevating human rights issues and ending the war in Yemen.

Tim Lenderking is now U.S. Special Envoy for Yemen. His expertise will be key in facilitating humanitarian assistance and commercial import of critical commodities, and revitalizing U.S. diplomacy with the @UN and others to end the war in Yemen, according to State.

“Analysts examining the six-year-old war in the Arab world’s poorest nation — now in the grips of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis — welcome the decision, but some say details need to be worked out,” VOA reported.

Obama and Biden supported the U.S. decision to join the Saudis in the war. Saudi Arabia, which launched the ill thought out war that led to one of the greatest humanitarian crisis in 2015 are interested in pulling out. The question is how? That is where the U.S. role supposedly comes in.

Yemen’s internationally recognized government, backed by the Saudi coalition, stressed the “importance of supporting diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis.” VOA wrote.

Houthis, who are in control of most of Yemen, including the capital, Sana’a, are to be taken off of the terrorist list in a reversal of Trumps designation of the group as terrorists.

“The Obama administration didn’t cover itself in glory when it comes to Yemen. To a certain extent, and despite our best intentions, we covered ourselves in shame,” Malley, now president and CEO of the International Crisis Group, a think tank, told TRT World.

“This was not a case where the goal was to stop our enemies from doing what we didn’t want them to do. This was a case where we were working with partners whose actions led to the devastation that we see.”

To his credit, Biden is planning to negotiate a peace. The war has been a miserable failure and the Yemenis are the victims. Details are not known.