Britain lobbied the US to lift its ban on the Houthi rebel movement shortly after Joe Biden entered the White House, The Telegraph can disclose.
The Foreign Office joined the United Nations in pressuring Washington to lift severe penalties imposed on the Iran-backed militant group in the final months of Donald Trump’s administration.
Last week Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, announced that the US would once again designate the Houthis as a terrorist organisation, after weeks of attacks on UK and US vessels in the Red Sea. The UK is considering following suit.
‘Cannot be business as usual’
Writing in The Telegraph, Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, urges Rishi Sunak’s government to proscribe both the Houthis and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, insisting “it cannot be business as usual for the UK’s posture towards Iran”.
A parliamentary answer delivered by Lord Ahmad, the Middle East minister, in March 2021, two months after Mr Biden entered the White House, revealed that the UK had been raising concerns that the Houthis’ designation by the US would disrupt the flow of aid to Yemen. At the time, Boris Johnson was Prime Minister and Dominic Raab was foreign secretary.
Asked on March 22 2021 what steps, if any, the UK was taking to designate the Houthi movement as a terrorist organisation, Lord Ahmad said: “We have no plans to proscribe the Houthis, but we keep the use of sanctions under review.
“We welcomed the US announcement to revoke the previous administration’s designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation.
“The UK had engaged closely with the US administration on this matter, sharing our concerns that designation would disrupt humanitarian operations in Yemen.”
Foreign Office declined to answer further questions
This weekend, the Foreign Office declined to answer further questions about its approach in 2021, including who signed off the decision to press the US to drop its terror designation.
Lord Ahmad acknowledged at the time “the Houthis’ dangerous military escalation, including cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia and their renewed offensive on Marib. In addition, the UN Security Council recently adopted a UK drafted resolution sanctioning Houthi official Sultan Zabin for the use of sexual violence as a tool of war.” He added: “We must address the Houthi sense of impunity.”
