Biden says he’s sent a message to Iran with Yemen strikes, calls Houthis a terrorist organization
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at Montgomery County Community College January 5
Allentown, Pennsylvania (CNN) — President Joe Biden said Friday he’s delivered a message to Iran with Thursday’s airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen, which he now is calling a terrorist group despite his administration’s 2021 decision to revoke that label.
“I’ve already delivered the message to Iran,” Biden said when asked his message during a tour of a coffee shop in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “They know not to do anything.”
“We will make sure we respond to the Houthis if they continue this outrageous behavior along with our allies,” he said.
The US and UK militaries launched strikes against Houthi targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Thursday, marking a significant response after the Biden administration and its allies warned that the Iran-backed militant group would bear the consequences of its attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
US and coalition forces struck at least 60 targets with more than 150 precision-guided munitions at 28 Iranian-backed Houthi militant locations, military officials said. The Houthi assets included command and control nodes, munitions, depots, launching systems, production facilities, and air defense radar systems.
The strikes, which have been condemned by several leaders across the Middle East, killed five and wounded six others, according to the rebels’ military spokesperson, Yahya Sare’e, who said they would not deter further Houthi attacks on shipping.
The Houthis fired at least one anti-ship ballistic missile towards a commercial vessel Friday, Director of the Joint Staff Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims II said. Hours later the US carried out further strikes against Houthi locations in Yemen, according to a US official.
These strikes, carried out unilaterally by the US, were much smaller in scope and targeted a radar facility used by the Houthis, the official said. It was not immediately clear whether the additional US strikes were in response to the anti-ship ballistic missile launch or marked a continuation of the previous attacks, after the US was able to conduct a battle damage assessment and see what targets remained.
The Houthis — an Iran-backed Shia political and military organization that has been fighting a civil war in Yemen against a coalition backed by Saudi Arabia — have been launching drones and missiles at commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea for weeks, many of which have been intercepted and shot down by US Navy ships in the area.
When Biden was asked if the US is in a proxy war with Iran, he said “No. Iran does not want a war with us.”
The president also said he believes the Houthis are a “terrorist group,” a designation his administration lifted on the organization but is considering reapplying.
“I think they are,” Biden said when asked if he was willing to call the Houthis a terrorist group.
In 2021, the Biden administration reversed the Trump administration’s 11th-hour decision to designate Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organization.
Earlier Friday, the White House reiterated it was reviewing a terror designation for the Houthis.
John Kirby, the national security council spokesman, said no decisions had been made and couldn’t provide a timeline for how long the review would take.
Biden said later it is “irrelevant” whether his administration formally designates the Houthis as a terrorist organization because the US and other nations would respond anyway to their attacks in the Red Sea.
“We’ve put together a group of nations that are going to say if they continue to act and behave as they do, we’ll respond,” the president said.
Some Democrats have said Biden should have sought congressional approval for the strikes. The president rejected their objections outright.
“They’re wrong and I sent up this morning, when the strikes occurred, exactly what happened,” he said.
The Houthis have said their bombardments are showing solidarity with the Palestinian people, after Israel launched an unrelenting military campaign on Gaza following Hamas’ October 7 terror attacks.
The Houthis have said they will only relent when Israel allows the entry of food and medicine into Gaza; its strikes could be intended to inflict economic pain on Israel’s allies in the hope they will pressure it to cease its military offensive.
Within Yemen, a yearslong conflict between Houthi forces and the Saudi-backed coalition has plunged the population into a devastating humanitarian crisis marked by famine, economic turmoil and extreme poverty.
Houthi forces stormed the capital Sanaa in 2014, and toppled the internationally recognized and Saudi-backed government, triggering a civil war. The conflict spiraled into a wider war in 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition intervened in an attempt to beat back the Houthis.
The conflict has killed up to 377,000 people, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reported in 2021. More than half of those died from indirect causes associated with the conflict, such as lack of food, water and healthcare.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Oren Liebermann, Haley Britzky, Natasha Bertrand, Alex Marquardt, MJ Lee and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.
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