WASHINGTON (AP) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Sunday that he will designate Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels as a “foreign terrorist organization” as time runs out for the Trump administration. The designation will take effect January 19, one day before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
The announcement comes as Pompeo and his best aides rush to complete actions they believe will strengthen their legacy and that of the president. In addition to the Houthi designation, Pompeo will likely also reappoint Cuba as “state sponsor of terrorism,” in the coming days, according to several government officials.
Both moves will impose or re-impose sanctions on the targets and could complicate the diplomacy of the incoming Biden government. On Saturday, Pompeo angered China when he overturned restrictions on US diplomatic contacts with Taiwanese officials. In addition, before leaving office on Jan. 20, Pompeo plans to establish explicit links between Iran and al-Qaeda and target more Iranian entities with sanctions, officials said.
The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the steps because they have not yet been announced and have spoken on the condition of anonymity.
The government had been considering the formal designation of the Houthi rebels as a “foreign terrorist organization” for months. But that effort had become bogged down in internal disagreements over whether sanctions could be effectively enforced without exacerbating Yemen’s severe humanitarian crisis.
Objections from the Treasury Department were apparently resolved last week after certain exceptions to the sanctions were arranged to continue the relief effort.
At the end of Sunday, Pompeo announced that he was in the process of designating the Houthis, also known as Ansarsallah, along with separate terrorist designations of three senior rebel leaders.
“These designations will provide additional tools to counter terrorist activity and terrorism by Ansarallah, a deadly Iranian-backed militia in the Gulf region,” he said. “The designations are intended to hold Ansarallah accountable for his terrorist acts, including transnational attacks that threaten civilian population, infrastructure and commercial shipping. “
Consideration of the designation had already sparked complaints from aid agencies who warned that the sanctions could prove catastrophic for attempts to aid in the starvation of Yemeni civilians trapped in the conflict between the Houthis and the Yemeni government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia.
“The United States recognizes its concern that these designations will affect the humanitarian situation in Yemen,” Pompeo said in his statement. “We plan to take steps to reduce its impact on certain humanitarian activities and imports into Yemen.”
Those measures include the issuance of special permits by the Treasury Department to allow US aid to flow into Yemen and for humanitarian organizations to continue to work there, he said.
President Donald Trump has cracked down on Cuba, reversing many of the sanctions that the Obama administration relaxed or lifted as part of a broader rapprochement with the communist island. Removing Cuba from the list of “state sponsors of terrorism” was an important part of that effort, and relisting the country was a long-term goal of Pompeo.
Such a designation is legal and it was not immediately clear on Sunday whether all technical criteria had been met to get Cuba back on the list, officials said. By removing Cuba from the list, the Obama administration had determined that the country no longer supported international terrorism, but Pompeo is expected to cite Cuban support for Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro as an important justification for the move, said the officials.
Pompeo is also expected to make comments later this week denouncing Iran for its alleged shelter and support for members of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network. In November, US officials said Iran had housed Al-Qaida’s number 2, Abu Muhammad al-Masri, who was murdered in August by Israeli agents in Iran, along with his daughter, the widow of bin Laden’s son Hamza bin Laden.
The Trump administration has been steadily increasing pressure on Iran since the president withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal in 2018 and began to reimpose sanctions relaxed under the agreement, which was intended to curb Iran’s nuclear program .
Pompeo announced on Saturday that he would lift all restrictions on contacts between US diplomats and Taiwanese officials. Those restrictions had been in place since the US formally adopted its “one China” policy in 1979 and recognized Beijing after it severed formal diplomatic ties with Taipei.
Pompeo has been at the forefront of the government’s push to go after China for its actions in Taiwan, the crackdown on dissent and human rights in Tibet, Hong Kong and the western region of Xinjiang, as well as Beijing’s disputed maritime claims in the South Chinese Ocean.