The Yemeni government held the Houthis responsible for the attack on Aden Airport on Dec. 30 last year DUBAI: The Yemeni government welcomed on Monday the decision by the United States government to classify the Houthi militia as a foreign terrorist organization. The United States will designate Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a terrorist group, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday, a late-term move that aid groups fear will worsen a humanitarian crisis. With just 10 days left before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, the action could complicate the new administration’s efforts to restart diplomacy with Iran, which has ties with the Houthis, and to reassess the US relationship with Saudi Arabia. The Ministry of Foreign and Expatriate Affairs said in a statement to the Yemeni News Agency Saba, that after six years of war and the imposition of numerous sanctions against individuals, the government believed that efforts to intensify all political and legal pressures on the Houthis should continue in order to create reach a political solution to the conflict. “The Houthis deserve to be classified as a foreign terrorist organization not only for their terrorist acts, but also for their permanent efforts to prolong the conflict and cause the worst humanitarian disaster in the world,” the ministry said. The ministry stated that the Houthis continue to commit “gross violations” of human rights and international humanitarian law, including the bombing of homes and places of worship, the persecution of religious minorities, the arrest and torture of journalists and political activists, the siege of cities, and the planting of mines on land and the sea. The Houthis “major dependence on Iran"s subversive agendas in the region” undermines the political process in Yemen, the ministry claimed. Iran’s ideological, financial, military and technical support for the Houthis allowed the militia to engage in reckless terrorist acts, the ministry said. The Yemeni government held the Houthis responsible for the attack on Aden Airport on Dec. 30 last year, that killed and wounded dozens.