The Biden administration has a curious idea on how to deal with terrorists: stop calling them ‘terrorists’ and then in return, they will stop being terrorists. Bloomberg News reported that the United States said it “would consider revoking its recent designation of Yemen’s Houthis as terrorists if the Iran-backed militants cease their shipping attacks in and around the Red Sea.”
Though the Houthis are currently listed on the U.S. Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) list, the Biden administration would consider removing the Houthis from the list if the group halted its attacks in the region, according to Bloomberg.
“My hope is that we can find diplomatic off-ramps,” Tim Lenderking, the Biden administration’s special envoy for Yemen, told reporters during a press briefing on Wednesday. “To find ways to deescalate and allow us to pull back, eventually, the designation and of course to end the military strikes on Houthis’ military capability.”
The Houthis have launched a series of missile and drone attacks against commercial shipping liners and U.S. and coalition forces in the Red Sea in recent months out of support for yet another terrorists group, Hamas.
The Daily Caller News Foundation explains that the Houthis did not cease their attacks even when other Iranian-backed terrorist groups in the Middle East did at the behest of Tehran. Even though the Houthis receive funding, equipment and intelligence from Iran, the terrorist group operates more independently than the rest of the country’s terror proxy network.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reports on the history of the Houthis being on the SDGT list:
The Biden administration has flip-flopped on its view of the Houthis during President Joe Biden’s tenure. The Houthis were removed from U.S. terrorist designation lists shortly after Biden took office in 2021, citing concerns over what humanitarian impacts it might have on Yemen.
The Biden administration returned the Houthis to the SDGT list in January following a spate of attacks against Western vessels in the Red Sea. They were not, however, relisted to the Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
Lenderking’s remarks on Wednesday that the Biden administration may remove the Houthis SDGT list once again represents a potential approach to ending conflict with the Houthi terrorists through diplomacy. The Biden administration has admitted that its efforts to take a defensive military position in the Red Sea haven’t worked nor stopped the Houthis attacks.