Republicans Reintroduce Bill to Re-Sanction Houthis
Senate Republicans reintroduced a bill this week that would sanction the Yemen-based Houthi militant group as a foreign terrorist organization, reversing a Biden administration decision in 2021 to revoke the group’s designation (see 2102100016). The bill, introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and sponsored by six other Republicans, would subject the Houthis to strict financial blocking measures and sanction the group’s leaders. The Biden administration revoked the sanctions because of concerns the measures were hindering humanitarian aid to the region.
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The decision to revoke the group’s designation “was an obvious and catastrophic mistake from the very beginning, and it has only become more obvious and more catastrophic as time has gone on,” said Cruz, who first introduced the bill last year. “President Biden needs to put an end to enabling the Houthis and other Iran-backed terrorist groups through sanctions relief and sanctions non-enforcement. If he won’t then Congress should mandate that he does so.”