UN: Concerns Not Gone Despite Yemen Trade Ban Suspension

NEW YORK (Kayhan Intl.) – The United Nations says it is still hearing concerns that companies are planning to cancel or suspend business with Yemen despite a U.S. decision to allow all transactions with the Houthi Ansarullah movement "given this move does not resolve underlying uncertainties,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday.
The United States on Monday approved all transactions involving Yemen’s Houthi movement for the next month as Washington reviews a Trump administration designation of the movement as a ‘foreign terrorist organization’.
Washington appeared to be trying to assuage the fears of companies and banks involved in commercial trade to Yemen, which relies mainly on imports.
"With millions of civilians at risk of starvation, Yemen cannot afford even a temporary disruption in commercial activity and it is not yet clear that the new license will prevent those kinds of disruptions,” Dujarric said. "We continue to call for a reversal of the designation on humanitarian grounds.”
A member of the Supreme Political Council of Yemen called on the new U.S. administration to end logistical support for the Saudi-led coalition involved in a deadly military campaign against the Yemeni nation, and instead impose an arms embargo on Riyadh and its allies for their war crimes.
"America should place an embargo on sending weapons, besides aviation and logistical support to Saudi Arabia and its allies over the aggression against Yemen. This is worth reviewing until February 26,” Mohammed Ali al-Houthi wrote in a post published on his official Twitter page late on Tuesday.
Houthi added that any Yemeni assets that Washington has laid its hands on will allow the aggressor American-Saudi-Emirati coalition to continue murdering women and children and subjecting the country to starvation and destruction.
The Trump administration’s last-minute "terrorist” designation appeared to be a desperate attempt to step up pressure on the popular Houthi movement after the Saudi regime failed to fulfill the objectives of over five years of war on Yemen, despite all the support it received from the U.S. and other Western states.
The Houthi Ansarullah movement, backed by the Yemeni armed forces and allied popular groups, has been successfully defending Yemen against the Saudi aggression, leaving Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the county.