WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and U.S. Representative Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today issued the following statement on the Houthis’ crackdown on aid operations:
“The Houthis’ arbitrary arrest of innocent aid workers and forcible takeover of critical pharmaceutical facilities in Yemen is appalling. This is the direct result of years of appeasement by the international community. Innocent Yemenis have already suffered too long under the Houthis’ brutal de-facto rule. The international community must hold the Houthis accountable for their brazen violations of basic humanitarian principles and ongoing human rights abuses, including their unjustified detention of former U.S. Embassy staff. The Houthis’ ongoing abuses coupled with terrorism in the Red Sea demand that the Biden administration must also immediately re-designate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.”
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