UN Pleads With US to Reverse Houthi Designation

The United Nations on Thursday urged outgoing United States President Donald Trump to repeal his designation of the Yemeni Houthi movement as a terrorist organization, saying the move could push the ravaged country, already suffering a monumental humanitarian crisis, over the edge. During his briefing to the body’s Security Council, UN aid chief Mark Lowcock explained that Washington’s plans to exempt human rights groups from its sanction list and allow aid agencies to operate within Yemen will not prevent a “famine on a scale that we have not seen for nearly 40 years.” According to the UN’s report, 16 million people will starve in Yemen in 2021, and the US’s blacklisting of the Houthis and all commercial institutions that deal with them will block access to food from two-thirds of Yemen’s population. The announced sanctions of the Iran-backed group currently battling a Saudi-led coalition over control of Yemen are set to kick in on the current administration’s final day in office. The ongoing civil war in Yemen has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in the world today, according to UN estimates, with 80% of Yemenis in need of aid.