Britain pushed US to lift Houthi terror status
UK raised concerns with Biden White House over Yemen aid after Trump proscribed rebel group
BRITAIN lobbied the US to lift its ban on Yemen’s Houthi rebels shortly after Joe Biden entered the White House, Sunday Telegraph can disclose.
The Foreign Office joined the United Nations in pressuring Washington to lift severe penalties imposed on the Iranbacked militant group in the final months of the Trump 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.
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, urges Rishi Sunak 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 came to power, 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
‘We have no plans to proscribe the Houthis, but we keep the use of sanctions under review’
secretary. Asked 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.”
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”.
Writing in this newspaper, Mr Jenrick states: “Behind the Houthis lies the hand of Iran, who have spent years training and supplying them as one of their many regional proxies.
“Indeed, Hamas’s Oct 7 massacre would not have been possible without Iran, even if Tehran’s tactical involvement is currently unclear. And in the last fortnight alone the Iranian regime itself has sent a wave of violence reverberating through the region. Against
‘Behind the Houthis lies the hand of Iran... it has spent years training and supplying them as one of their many regional proxies’
this backdrop, it cannot be business as usual for the UK’s posture towards Iran. It’s time we took the fanatical Iranian regime at their word and treated them as the zealots they openly profess to be.
“Their friends the Houthis should be proscribed as a terrorist group as the American government has now done for the second time, as should the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which we have been painfully slow to do.”
A Government spokesman said: “The UK government, law enforcement and our international partners continue to work together to identify, deter and respond to global threats.
“We do not comment on whether a specific organisation is or is not being considered for proscription.”
In a world in flux, Britain’s interests remain remarkably stable. As a free trading island nation, open shipping lanes have always been crucial to our prosperity and security.
So when, nearly 70 years after the Suez crisis, another critical artery for UK trade in the Middle East was threatened, we clearly had strong reasons to act.
Direct missile attacks from the Houthis in Yemen on HMS Diamond ended any strategic debate and compelled the Government to respond. To do anything less would have invited further attacks on our people and assets.
But until commercial shipping is able to pass through the Red Sea unmolested, the Houthi’s piracy will cost us in our pockets.
Ships travelling on the EuropeanAsian maritime highway will continue to be diverted around the Cape of Good Hope, taking longer and costing everyone more.
If the Houthis turn their cheap and plentiful drones to disrupt the passage of energy supply, the inflationary impact to the UK and global economy will be far worse.
Behind the Houthis lies the hand of Iran, who have spent years training and supplying them as one of their many regional proxies.
Indeed, Hamas’s October 7 massacre would not have been possible without Iran, even if Tehran’s tactical involvement is currently unclear.
And in the last fortnight alone the Iranian regime itself has sent a wave of violence reverberating through the region, striking Syria, Pakistan and US assets in Iraq and Syria.
Against this backdrop, it cannot be business as usual for the UK’s posture towards Iran.
It’s time that we took the fanatical Iranian regime at their word and treated them as the zealots they openly profess to be.
Their friends, the Houthis, should be proscribed as a terrorist group as the American government has now done for the second time, as should the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which we have so far been painfully slow to do.
But the response must go well beyond clarifying the legal definitions of the actions of this pariah state and their proxies. The Houthis’s behaviour forces EU states to confront the coming geopolitical reckoning.
A combination of an inability to deploy naval assets in the case of Germany and an unwillingness in the case of France and Italy has thus far left the UK and US tasked with restoring order at sea.
But the option for Europe to free-ride on US power is disappearing. A second Trump presidency is the most likely outcome of the 2024 election and it would appear that he, like many of his predecessors, does not view the Red Sea as a critical interest.
China’s unprecedented military build up in the Pacific and South China Sea clearly poses the greatest challenge to America and to contain China Trump knows he will have to disengage from less strategically important theatres.
The UK must ready itself too. We must ask difficult questions about the availability of our current naval fleet as part of a review of current capability.
But in the meantime we must prioritise where we deploy our assets. It is clear now, as it was in 1956, that the volume of trade passing through shipping lanes in the Middle East makes them crucial to our prosperity.
And it is also clear that we are well placed to be able to project force there, for instance with a base in Bahrain. As America pivots to the Pacific to confront the defining geopolitical challenge of the century, the UK should secure the space that Iran and her proxies will otherwise exploit.
While our own naval tilt to the Pacific is alluring, our strategic interests lie above all in the defence of Europe and our near-abroad. Realism must prevail over romance.
Robert Jenrick is MP for Newark and a former cabinet minister