President Joe Biden said it is “under consideration” that the United States could re-designate the Houthis as a terrorist group. Biden removed that designation last year so as to facilitate humanitarian flows to famine-struck Yemen.
The time for consideration is over. Biden should not wait. He should act immediately to put the Iran-backed terrorist group back on the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
Last week, the Houthis launched an attack against the United Arab Emirates. Consisting of drones and missiles, it targeted an oil terminal and Abu Dhabi International Airport. Thankfully, a follow-on attack on Monday was intercepted by air defense systems.
Yet the risk is clear. The UAE and Saudi Arabia, both important U.S. allies, are now coming under increasingly bold and capable Houthi strikes.
In response, the U.S. should support Saudi Arabia’s air campaign in Yemen. While civilian casualties should be avoided as much as possible, not militarily responding to the Houthis is no longer a viable option. Were the Houthis able to win control of Yemen, Iran could use the country as a land bridge to launch attacks in Africa and elsewhere. Deterrence must be restored, at least in some fashion.
There’s a broader point to note.
Namely, that the latest Houthi attacks should serve as a lesson to the Biden administration to leave the nuclear negotiating table with Iran. Appeasement never works. By staying at the negotiating table, the U.S. is giving Iran a pass for the malign behavior of one of its proxies.
Jackson Richman is a journalist in Washington, D.C. Follow him @jacksonrichman.
