American newspaper.. Democratic representative calls on the "Biden" administration to classify the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization

The US State Department has rejected a call by New York Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres for the Biden administration to re-designate the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization, according to a letter obtained by Jewish Insider .

The US State Department responded to Torres' July 19 letter on Tuesday, claiming that the reclassification would cause problems with civilians in Yemen.

“As Secretary Blinken has said, the Houthis must be held accountable for their actions in and beyond the Red Sea,” the State Department message said. “At the same time, it is important for the United States to avoid harming and alienating Yemeni civilians.”

The letter continues: “The Houthis control the ports and distribution channels, so the FTO designation would have significant consequences for food security and the basic needs of the population, as nearly 90 percent of the products needed to meet basic needs in Yemen are imported commercially.”

The government said it considered designating the Houthis as a “specially designated global terrorist organization” sufficient to advance the administration’s “priorities.”

In his July 19 letter obtained by Axios, Torres urged the administration to redesignate the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization, and questioned why the administration had not already done so. Biden reversed former President Donald Trump’s order to designate the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization shortly after taking office, and the State Department did so on February 12, 2021.

A spokesperson for Rep. Torres’ office confirmed the existence of the State Department letter, and the New York Democrat expressed frustration with the State Department’s response, tweeting, “It doesn’t matter that the US is fighting the Houthis in the largest naval battle since WWII. It doesn’t matter that the Houthis are wreaking havoc in the Red Sea, putting 15% of global maritime trade at risk. It doesn’t matter that the Houthis are a proxy for Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of foreign terrorist organizations. None of this seems to matter to the State Department, which refuses to acknowledge the reality staring us all in the face.”

The Houthi group has been attacking ships in the Red Sea since November, and a report by the US Defense Intelligence Agency said the Houthi group had managed to reduce shipping through the canal by 90% by February.

The US Defense Intelligence Agency report stated: “The Houthis’ actions have harmed regional security, hindered international humanitarian relief efforts, and placed pressure on global maritime trade.”