California- AIJES

*By Fernando Carvajal, former member of the UNSC Panel of Experts on Yemen, 2017-2019.

During a media stakeout after briefing the UN Security Council on 23 July, UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg if the UN shares “classification of the Houthis as terrorists?.” This question came less than a week after Sana’a-based Houthi rebels claimed a drone strike that killed one civilian in the centre of Tel Aviv, Israel.
 
Hans Grundberg, who remains committed to reaching a peace deal between Houthis and the Legitimate Government of Yemen based on the principles agreed under the National Dialogue of 2013, was highly diplomatic in his answer. “[T]he United Nations is not engaging in such a classification. We engage with the Yemeni parties, of which the Houthis are one of,” he replied, pointing to a general approach adopted by the UN Secretariat and its bureaucracy. This isn’t to say the UN doesn’t recognize such classifications or definitions, he simply highlighted the complexity of relations between UN officials and actors in particular conflicts. The fact remains, Houthis are a non-State actor committing “acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes…in any circumstance unjustifiable.”
 
This cautious approach by the UN Envoy caused outrage among Yemenis far beyond Houthi aggression against civilian vessels across the Bab al-Mandab area or the new round of extra-judicial detention of UN and NGO workers the first week of June, as Yemenis continue to endure the full force of Houthi terror over the past decade. Ordinary Yemenis across the liberated provinces and abroad simply can’t stomach the UN approach that simply turns a blind eye to Houthi crimes. A number of Member States, on the other hand, have made it abundantly clear that Houthis aggression amounts to terrorism.
 
In order to decipher the contradictions between comments by diplomats and UN officials, observers must consider the role of the UN bureaucracy. Hans Grundberg is the Special Envoy of the Secretary General for Yemen, appointed on 6 August 2021 by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Grundberg is employed at the pleasure of the Secretary General, who merely informs the UN Security Council (UNSC) of the appointment, rather than present the nomination for a vote by the fifteen-member body. This creates distance between the Special Envoy and the UN Security Council, whom he briefs rather than reports to.
 
This is problematic for all parties as members of the UNSC have directly referred to Houthis as a terrorist group in text of UNSC Resolution 2624 (2022). In operative clause number one, Member States “[s]trongly condemn[ed] the cross-border attacks by the Houthi terrorist group,” in support of the sanctions regime established in 2014. Ordinary Yemenis would expect the Special Envoy to use the same language, but his role as mediator would then be compromised by Houthi rejection of his role, a game Houthis have played since 2011. Houthis have often denied the Envoy’s legitimacy when it is convenient to reject the role of the UN in conflict resolution, even though Houthis depend on the billions of dollars in aid supplied across territory under their control.
 
During my term on the UNSC Panel of Experts on Yemen, this contradiction became abundantly clear in conversations with UN aid agency officials whom we confronted about profits made by Houthi officials from aid operations across northern Yemen. Their response was simply ‘if we don’t deal with Houthis then millions of Yemenis starve when we are denied access.”
 
Hans Grundberg danced around the question on the classification of Houthis as a terrorist group hours after he announced an agreement between Houthis and the Legitimate Government on de-escalation measures that aimed at extending the détente with Saudi Arabia. Clearly, he avoided inflammatory comments that could derail much needed progress, which ordinary Yemenis see as collusion with Houthis that extends their suffering day in and day out. Ordinary Yemenis do not trust Houthis keeping their word toward peace, rather see the terrorist group buying more time to strengthen their hold on power across northern Yemen.