“Effective 16 February, I am revoking the designations of Ansarallah, sometimes referred to as the Houthis, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under the Immigration and Nationality Act and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended”, Blinken said in a statement.
The United States will keep three senior Houthi leaders on its terror list and will impose new sanctions on some members, Blinken added.
“Ansarallah leaders Abdul Malik al-Houthi, Abd al-Khaliq Badr al-Din al-Houthi, and Abdullah Yahya al-Hakim remain sanctioned under E.O. 13611 related to acts that threaten the peace, security, or stability of Yemen”, secretary of stated said.
He stressed that the US will continue to closely monitor the activities of Ansarallah and its leaders and are actively identifying additional targets for designation, especially those responsible for explosive boat attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea and UAV and missile attacks into Saudi Arabia.
Yemen has been engulfed in an armed conflict between the government forces, led by President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi, and the Houthi movement for several years now. The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since March 2015.
According to media reports, the administration of President Joe Biden formally informed Congress it would remove the Houthis from the US foreign terrorist organisations list. The previous administration added the Houthi movement to its list of foreign terrorist organisations days before the end of Donald Trump's tenure.