Al-Ahmed mobilizes international support to designate 'Houthis' as a terrorist organization

Riyadh (Agencies): Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council Chairman Rashad al-Alimi urged Britain to rally international support to designate the Houthi group as a terrorist organization and to take legal and financial measures aimed at drying up its funding and arms sources. He made this appeal during a meeting on Sunday evening with British Minister of State for the Middle East Stephen Doughty in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to discuss ways to enhance joint cooperation and confront the threats posed by the group.

The call comes amid escalating military confrontations in Yemen in recent months, coinciding with Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, as the Yemeni government intensifies its diplomatic efforts to garner international support for tightening restrictions on the Houthi group’s funding and arms sources. On October 11, the internationally recognized Yemeni government approved a bill that classifies the Houthi group as a terrorist organization and criminalizes its activities and funding sources.

During the meeting, al-Alimi stressed that protecting international navigation and ending threats against it require supporting the Yemeni state’s efforts to restore its authority over its entire territory and enhance its capacity to protect its territorial waters. The two sides reviewed recent Houthi escalations, including attacks on Aden airport in the south and Al-Rayyan airport in Al-Mukalla in the east, as well as attacks on civilian targets in Saudi Arabia. They also discussed the continuous assaults on the city of Taiz in southwestern Yemen, which has been subjected to a siege and shelling affecting residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure.

Al-Alimi emphasized the necessity of adopting an international stance commensurate with the scale of violations and threats posed by the group, stressing the importance of linking political and legal initiatives with practical measures to disrupt funding, arms, and smuggling networks, and to tighten controls on the flow of dual-use technologies and components to the Houthis.

The meeting also addressed human rights violations that the Yemeni government accuses the group of committing, foremost among them the death of a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights staff member under torture and the continued detention of more than 70 UN employees. Al-Alimi considered these practices indicative of the challenges facing international efforts to alleviate humanitarian suffering in Yemen.

For his part, the British minister reaffirmed his country’s supportive stance toward the Yemeni people and its political leadership, confirming continued British support in political, security, economic, and humanitarian fields, and backing the government’s efforts to enhance security and stability.