Iran condemned on Thursday as "baseless" US President Donald Trump's move to designate the Tehran-linked Houthi movement in Yemen as a "foreign terrorist organization (FTO)", reports "Reuters".
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei Khamenei said the move, which would impose harsher economic sanctions than those the Biden administration has imposed on the Houthis, was "justification for implementing anti-human sanctions against the Yemeni people".
"Such arbitrary and groundless unilateral actions will further weaken the rule of law in international relations and threaten regional peace and stability," Baghaei was quoted as saying by state media.
The Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have carried out more than 100 attacks on ships sailing in the Red Sea since November 2023, saying that acting in solidarity with the Palestinians regarding Israel's war against "Hamas" in Gaza. They sank two ships, captured another, and killed at least four sailors.
The attacks disrupted global shipping, forcing companies to reroute to longer and more expensive routes around South Africa for more than a year.