The US must once again classify Yemen's Houthi rebels as a “terrorist” entity after attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea, US media reported on Tuesday evening.
The announcement, expected on Wednesday, comes as the US military carried out strikes in Yemen on Tuesday against four Houthi rebel missiles, which a US official said posed an “imminent threat” to commercial and military vessels represented.
This is the third operation by the United States in less than a week against the Houthis, who are attacking ships off the coast of the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the area under fire and besieged by Israel.
According to the US military command in the Middle East (Centcom), the rebels again targeted a merchant ship on Tuesday.
AFP
Last week, US-British strikes targeted nearly 30 locations in Yemen. US forces have also attacked radar, drone and missile infrastructure, raising fears of an escalation in the conflict.
Last month, the United States created a multinational maritime force to protect shipping in the Red Sea, a key transit route that accounts for up to 12% of global trade.
“We do not expect a regional conflict, quite the opposite,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “We want to stop the spread of the conflict and create conditions for de-escalation.”
The Houthis are part of what they call the “Axis of Resistance” against Israel, which includes Iran-backed groups such as the Palestinian Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah.
The US removed the Houthis from its list of “terrorist organizations” in February 2021.
They believed at the time that this designation complicated the response to a very serious humanitarian crisis in Yemen, a country at war in which the rebel group controls much of.