Joe’s Houthi Humbug
A half-hearted ‘terror listing’
FOR a quintessential example of the Biden administration’s farcical foreign policy, look no further than its duplicitous re-designation of Yemen’s Houthis as a terrorist group — an election-year ruse to create the appearance of combating the Iranian proxy while preserving the Iran-empowering status quo.
After weeks of attacks on the United States and our allies turned the Red Sea into a no-go zone, the Biden State Department last week finally corrected its February 2021 error in lifting sanctions the Trump State Department had slapped on the jihadist organization.
The White House re-listed the Houthis as a specially designated global terrorist group, giving America authority to block its assets and disrupt its international financial-support network.
But the move came with caveats. First, Team Biden provided the Houthis with carveouts they will no doubt exploit. It granted a series of exemptions in the form of licenses permitting transactions relating to things like “the provision of agricultural commodities, medicine, medical devices, replacement parts and components or software updates,” “telecommunications mail and certain internet-based communications,” “personal remittances” and “refined petroleum products.”
Think a terrorist organization won’t drive a truck through those loopholes?
Goods can be traded for money. Money can be traded for arms.
At minimum, the jihadists can steal or divert the aid, fortifying themselves and freeing up resources for their nefarious aims.
Has Foggy Bottom heard of fungibility?
Lest we forget, Hamas turned Gaza into a mini-terror state on the back of billions of dollars’ worth of purported humanitarian assistance.
Second, the Biden administration said it would impose sanctions 30 days after announcing them — giving the Houthis a head start to prepare to endure if not circumvent them.
Third and most important, the Biden team re-designated the Houthis a specially designated global terrorist but not a foreign terrorist organization. The Trump team had listed the Houthis as both. Why does the omission matter? The latter designation is significantly stronger than the former.
The weaker sanctions will neither criminalize those who provide “material support or resources” to the Houthis nor force banks to seize their assets. Victims of Houthi savagery will not be able to sue the group for damages. The Houthis can still even obtain US visas — while the Biden administration is restricting visas for Jews in Judea and Samaria opposing its suicidal “two-state solution.”
The stated rationale for re-designating the Houthis under a Swisscheese sanctions regime is to allow vital aid to war-torn Yemen. But that was a stated reason for removing the designations in the first place — designations President Biden recently said are “irrelevant.”
Is the administration lying now or was it lying then?
Why is it taking cosmetic measures to counter the Houthis — a halfhearted re-designation on the heels of pinprick strikes that have only been met with more aggression?
For the same reason it had dedesignated them and let them wreak havoc for so long in the first place: Because its Iran First policy requires treating the mullahs and their proxies with kid gloves.
The Biden team is acting now as a political imperative — because its policy has proven so obviously disastrous. But the actions come in the weakest and most disingenuous form because of its continued strategic imperative to protect Iran and its proxies in a bid to make the mullocracy the regional strong horse.
Iranian forces and proxy Hezbollah have trained, armed and supported the Houthis. Two US Navy SEALs just tragically died during a mission to seize a boatload of advanced conventional weapons Tehran was providing them.
Yet you will hear nary a word from the administration linking Iran to the Houthis, just as Team Biden sought to delink Iran from Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack despite the evidence.
The administration has not put one iota of pressure on the mullocracy since Hamas perpetrated a mini-Holocaust. It has done nothing to deter the mullahs and their partners. The proof is in the pudding of an exploding Middle East.
Instead, Biden has been fixated on deterring Israel from swiftly and decisively crushing Iran-backed Hamas — in a war the administration has sought to micromanage from the start and end on its terms and timeline — and obliterating Iran-backed Hezbollah, which menaces with hundreds of thousands of missiles and rockets in Lebanon.
Its intensifying whisper campaign against and the increasing pressure it’s exerting on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu smacks of an effort to effect regime change and undermine our ally at a time of existential peril.
There is no way this will redound to America’s interest. Iran, an enemy at war with America since 1979, is the chief beneficiary.
The faux offensive against the Houthis is a microcosm of the Biden administration’s treacherous policy — one literally blowing up in America’s face in the Middle East and that threatens to do the same on our shores.