Houthis Launch Additional Drone Attacks On Civilian Targets

(New York, N.Y.) — On Monday, the Iran-backed Houthis launched a drone filled with explosives, targeting the Jizan Regional Airport in Saudi Arabia and wounding 16 civilians. The attack is the latest in a string of Houthi drone strikes on the Kingdom’s Abha International Airport and in the United Arab Emirates. The sharp increase in attacks and rising threat to civilians throughout the region has prompted the Biden Administration to consider reversing its February 2021 decision to decrease pressure on the Houthis by removing the Iranian partner from its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Following the Biden Administration’s rescission of the terror designations, terror attacks increased, and the Houthis became more empowered on the ground in Yemen. They renewed an offensive to retake Marib, as well as engaged in repeated ballistic missile and drone-related attacks on civilian areas in the region.

In an August 2020 United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) webinar, Countdown to the Expiration of the U.N. Arms Embargo On Iran, UANI Senior Advisor and former U.S. National Intelligence Manager for Iran Norman Roule warned that “Iran has expressed an interest in expanding its ability to project power in the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, primarily because of its involvement in the Yemen conflict.” 

Indeed, both before and after the expiration of the U.N. arms embargo in October 2020, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militias have benefitted from Iran’s technical drone know-how and the provision of drones manufactured in Iran or based on Iranian models. Logically, as Iran’s own drone expertise increases, its proxies’ capabilities are likely to grow as well. 

Wednesday’s U.S. Treasury Department sanctions on a Houthi financial network connected to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Force’s (IRGC) Quds Force is a step in the right direction—particularly the levying of terrorism sanctions. But it is imperative that the Biden Administration expand these designations to include sanctioning the Houthi militia once again as Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13324 and adding them back on the U.S. State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. 

To read UANI’s resource Houthis, please click here. 

To read UANI’s resource The Iranian Drone Threat, please click here. 

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