US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has revoked Trump’s designation of Ansarullah as a “foreign terrorist organisation”.
Blinken said in a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry: “Starting from February 16, the classification of Ansarullah, sometimes called Houthis, is withdrawn from the list of foreign terrorist organizations.”
Effective February 16, I am revoking the terrorist designations recently imposed on Ansarallah. We must deliver humanitarian assistance and commercial imports into Yemen. We remain focused on Ansarallah’s malign activity and are identifying additional targets for designation.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) February 12, 2021
He explained that the decision was based on “the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Yemen.”
In a statement, he added: The United States will “closely monitor” the activities of Ansarullah, and is working to “define” new targets for the sanctions, especially for those “responsible for attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and for missile attacks on Saudi Arabia,” as he put it.
