New Delhi: The Biden administration’s action of delisting the Houthi militia as a foreign terrorist organisation in 2021 has been viewed as a “weakness” and forced the US to fight its way out, Simone Ledeen, a former US deputy assistant secretary of defense for Middle East Policy, has said.
In an exclusive interview with ThePrint, Ledeen, currently a senior fellow at the Strauss Center at the University of Texas, asserted that the messaging efforts of the Biden administration to avoid conflict with Iran and its regional proxies have placed the US in a “corner”.
“The Biden administration since early 2021, when they took over, have taken a much different approach with the Iranian regime as a whole, as well as with its proxies, including the Houthis. They delisted the Houthis, which the Trump administration had placed on the designated terrorist organisation list,” said Ledeen.
“They (the Biden administration) throughout have been messaging both privately and publicly — we do not want a conflict. The problem is that the message unfortunately has been viewed as a message of weakness on the part of the United States [of America],” she added.
The former US defence official also asserted that the impact of Houthi attacks would be felt by American civilians in the coming months and that the Biden administration would face pressure in an “election year”.
The Houthi militia, in control of Yemen’s capital Sana’a and the northern part of the country, have been attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea — a gateway to the Suez Canal, an important sea trading route.
The Houthis have claimed that the attacks will continue as long as Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza, controlled by the Palestinian militant group Hamas since 2007.
The attacks have increased the costs of international shipping, especially for Indian exporters trading in basmati and textiles from Haryana, as reported by ThePrint earlier.
In response to the Houthi attacks, the US and the UK have conducted a series of airstrikes, hitting nearly 30 locations in Yemen, Friday and Saturday, even as the White House emphasised that Washington D.C. has no interest in a war with Yemen, according to media reports.
“The Biden administration has really been placed in a corner [with regards to the Houthis], where they must now fight their way out and that is what they are doing right now,” said Ledeen.
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‘Several reasons the US in current situation’
According to Ledeen, the action of delisting the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organisation removed avenues of leverage for the US in dealing with the militia, including unfreezing bank accounts linked with the militant outfit.
“With that designation [terrorist organisation], we [the Trump administration] had frozen a number of bank accounts and also sent a message to the global economy, that these individuals in these organisations will not get access to the US dollars and the banks,” she said.
She said the designation was in conjunction with a UN resolution at the time, which blocked Iran from selling ballistic missiles and other types of heavy munitions and missiles to the Houthis. “That resolution no longer exists and was allowed to expire. The Iranian regime is legally selling missiles,” she added.
With access to global funds and Iranian armaments, the Houthis have gained the capability to launch missiles at Israel and drones that have purported to have struck Indian-flagged commercial ships 370 kilometres from the coast of Gujarat.
In 2015, US ally Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates led a coalition that launched airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen, in support of the internationally recognised Sunni-majority government.
However, Saudi Arabia has been pushing to exit the war in Yemen in recent months — with a ceasefire in place between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.
On whether the US and the UK strikes would affect the Saudi efforts in Yemen, Ledeen said that Riyadh, being “burned” by the Biden administration in the past, would have no interest in “speaking out” against the Houthis.
“It makes no sense for them [Saudi Arabia] to come out and speak openly and harshly against the Houthis, it’s not in their interest. Especially, as they continue to believe that this [Biden] administration will not support them or have their back,” she added.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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