United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahayan has asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to re-designate the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen as a terrorist organization, Axios reported citing a senior Emirati official.
The request follows the recent missile and drone attack on the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi, which killed three people and injured six others. The Houthis took credit for the attack.
The Yemenite militant and Islamist political movement has also routinely attempted to launch attacks on other countries in the area, especially Saudi Arabia, which is currently leading a coalition against it.
The Houthis have also launched attacks on ships, including one against an Emirati vessel that was reportedly a "warning" to Israel.
Then-US President Donald Trump had designated the Houthis as a terrorist group during his administration. However, President Joe Biden removed this designation within a month of taking up the Oval Office, claiming that it had complicated sending aid to the people of civil war-ravaged Yemen.