Trump’s ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Biden’s softness on Iran will ‘come back to haunt’ the US after Navy SEALs and US warships were put in the line of fire by Iran-backed Houthis militants.
During an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com on Wednesday, Pompeo blasted the Biden administration for deciding only yesterday to re-designate the Iran-backed Houthis as a terrorist group, three years after removing the label.
He called it an “unwillingness” by the government to “accept simple truths” as it is a “fundamental fact” that the Houthis are terrorists.
Former President Donald Trump had previously listed Houthis as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT). But Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken removed them from the list in 2021 to make it easier to get humanitarian aid to Yemen.
But Pompeo branded the claim for humanitarian aid as “fraud.”
“Every terrorist covered by the statute has humanitarian exemptions,” he said, so that excuse was that Biden’s team was “too cute by half.”
Pompeo said the Biden administration’s move to relist the group was a “half-measure” intended only to “provide domestic political cover rather than doing the things that will actually protect Americans.” .
During an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com on Wednesday, Pompeo blasted the Biden administration for deciding only yesterday to re-designate the Iran-backed Houthis as a terrorist group, three years after removing the label.
Houthi fighters and tribal supporters raise their firearms to protest US-led airstrikes
A Houthi fighter holds his rifle during a ceremony marking the end of his training
‘My core criticism is that you cannot take the world as you would like. You have to accept the world as it is and then try to set your goals in it,” he told DailyMail.com.
Additionally, Pompeo blamed the administration’s “failed policies” for creating the conditions that led to the Houthis’ hundreds of attacks on US forces in recent weeks, as well as the deadly massacre of Israelis by Hamas on October 7.
The former foreign secretary warned that there is a “very serious risk” if you “try not to look evil directly in the eye and acknowledge that it exists and then confront it.”
He said the Biden administration’s “quasi designation” is an example of doing just that when it comes to Iran.
Pompeo will speak at the Steamboat Institute’s Foreign Policy Summit on Saturday.
Previewing his speech to DailyMail.com, he said he will discuss some of the key foreign policy challenges facing the Biden administration and how they can be resolved.
“This can all be solved,” he said of the ongoing challenges facing the country. “We just have to have the courage as Americans to do that, and I’m confident we will.”
Earlier this week, Houthi forces hit a US ship with a missile as it sailed through the Red Sea.
The group also shot an anti-ship cruise missile at a US destroyer, according to US Central Command.
In retaliation, the US carried out four new strikes on Yemen on Tuesday, targeting anti-ship ballistic missiles used by the Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
After being re-designated as a terrorist organization, the group launched a second US-operated ship in the Red Sea region early Thursday.
In addition, two US Navy SEALs are missing after conducting regular interdiction missions, intercepting weapons on ships bound for Houthi-controlled Yemen.
Conservative members of Congress also criticized Biden for not taking “real action” and waiting years to hold the terrorist group accountable.
House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner told DailyMail.com that Biden “should never have removed” the Houthis’ FTO designation.
The SDTG label to be reimposed on the Houthis does not include more severe sanctions associated with their appointment to the FTO list, such as travel restrictions.
“Designating the Houthis as a ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’ only brings sanctions and avoids taking real action,” Turner added.
“President Trump labeled the Houthi rebels as terrorists. Joe Biden removed the designation in 2021. Now Biden admits the Houthis are ‘terrorists’ after their repeated attacks in the Red Sea,” Texas Rep. reported. Lance Gooden on X.
The Houthi soldiers carry out mock exercises against fake Israeli forces
A Houthi fighter is pictured aboard a cargo ship in the Red Sea
“Joe Biden continues his 50+ year streak of being wrong on foreign policy!”
New York Rep. Claudia Tenney wrote on X, “President Biden’s decision to designate this as an FTO is long overdue and may be too little, too late.”
Some lawmakers said Biden originally took the Houthis off terrorist lists to ease tensions with Iran.
“Biden gets no credit for undoing one of his first — and worst — reconciliations with Iran,” California Rep. Darrell Issa said.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma wrote on
“As hostile adversaries test American resolve, American strength is essential to our national security and global stability,” the post continued.