Ukraine Crisis Spills Into Yemen Diplomacy

The United States on Monday backed the U.N. Security Council to characterize Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a terrorist group, despite warnings from four European and Latin American council members that the move could complicate efforts to reach a political settlement of the seven-year war in Yemen and accelerate a humanitarian crisis in the Middle East’s poorest country.

The United States agreed to back the resolution because it believed it was necessary to impose penalties on the Houthis for their attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure inside and outside Yemen, and it only signed on to the initiative after ensuring it would not have a negative impact on the political process and the humanitarian plight of the Yemeni people, according to diplomatic sources involved in the negotiation.