US to revoke terrorist designation of Houthis citing famine | Al Jazeera

The United States intends to revoke the terrorist designation for Yemen’s Houthi movement in response to the country’s humanitarian crisis, reversing one of the most criticised last-minute decisions of the Trump administration.

The reversal, confirmed by a State Department official on Friday, comes a day after President Joe Biden declared a halt to US support for the Saudi Arabia-led military campaign in Yemen, widely seen as a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

“Our action is due entirely to the humanitarian consequences of this last-minute designation from the prior administration, which the United Nations and humanitarian organizations have since made clear would accelerate the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” the official said.

In a statement, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, welcomed the decision.

“The designation … stopped food and other critical aid from being delivered inside Yemen and would have prevented effective political negotiation,” he said.