White House: Houthis to be designated as terrorists again

Against the backdrop of continued Houthi attacks on merchant shipping, the White House announced today that the Iranian-backed group (formally known as Ansarallah) will be designated as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.”

The group had previously been designated as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” on January 19, 2021, but was delisted on February 16, 2021, as the designation was then seen as impeding the flow of humanitarian aid to Yemen.

Restoration of the terrorist designation had been widely expected as Houthi attacks on shipping increased.

Announcing the decision from the White House today, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said:

“This designation is an important tool to impede terrorist funding to the Houthis, further restrict their access to financial markets, and hold them accountable for their actions. If the Houthis cease their attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, the United States will immediately reevaluate this designation.

“The designation will take effect 30 days from now, to allow us to ensure robust humanitarian carve outs are in place so our action targets the Houthis and not the people of Yemen. We are rolling out unprecedented carve outs and licenses to help prevent adverse impacts on the Yemeni people. The people of Yemen should not pay the price for the actions of the Houthis. We are sending a clear message: commercial shipments into Yemeni ports on which the Yemeni people rely for food, medicine and fuel should continue and are not covered by our sanctions. This is in addition to the carveouts we include in all sanctions programs for food, medicine, and humanitarian assistance.”

MORE OPERATORS SHUN THE RED SEA

Few ship operators are likely to see the White House move as having any early impact on the situation in the Red Sea and the number opting to avoid Suez Canal passages continues to grow, with Shell now reportedly joining them and MSC Cruises this week canceling three repositioning ‘Grand Voyage’ sailings in April from South Africa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Europe due to the ongoing attacks on merchant vessels in the Red Sea.

The company canceled a 24-night cruise of MSC Splendida from Durban, South Africa to Genoa, Italy; a 21-night sailing of MSC Opera from Dubai, UAE to Genoa; and a 23-night voyage of MSC Virtuosa from Dubai to Southampton, UK.

“The safety of passengers and crew is MSC Cruises’ number one priority,“ said the company, noting that it had attempted to find suitable alternative itineraries, but ultimately found no viable options and had to cancel the voyages. The three ships will transfer directly to Europe without any passengers on board and avoid transiting through the Red Sea. Instead, they will sail around the west coast of Africa with no ports of call on their journeys to their respective European homeports for the summer 2024 season. None of the other ships in the company’s fleet are affected.

All passengers booked on the three repositioning cruisescan transfer their booking to a future Grand Voyage of a similar duration for free. Alternatively, they can rebook to any other cruise in the company’s global network, with either a partial refund or additional payment for the difference in price of the original booking, or receive a full refund with no cancellation fee.