UN Security Council urged to include Yemen Houthis on terror list

Saudi envoy to the United Nations, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, has called the Security Council to include the Yemeni Houthi group on the list of terrorist organizations, saying this has become an urgent and necessary matter.

Speaking at the Security Council special session on the Yemeni crisis earlier this week, Al-Mouallimi said the Houthi militia has refused to extend the truce for “political ambitions and reasons”, while the international community has offered the group’s leaders a new opportunity to respond to peace efforts.

He pointed out that the Security Council has failed to take a position on the atrocities committed by the Houthi militias against the Yemenis. “Classifying the Houthi militia as terrorists has become an urgent and necessary matter,” he stressed.

Al-Mouallimi explained that the group’s control of the port of Hudaydah represents a “threat to international peace and security”, and that the group has not recently shown any real desire to end the conflict in Yemen and reach a comprehensive political solution.

The Saudi diplomat called on the Security Council to take stricter measures against the Houthis, if they continued to procrastinate in the peace process.

Oman has been mediating between the Yemeni government, Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.

Yemen has been at war for more than 8 years.

A six-month truce between the government and the Houthis ended on October 2, without extension.