This is the Kator Daily Podcast for Friday, January 15, 2021.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The designation of Huthies as terrorists by the outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

stands to complicate the path to diplomacy

over the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

Cato's John Glazer comments.

When an administration leaves office, they often take actions that sort of

firm up their policy priorities in a way that they hope at least makes it more

difficult for the next administration to undo them,

particularly when the party in power is changing. So what does it mean that Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State, declared the

Huthies as a foreign terrorist organization?

Well as you implied this is actually part as a foreign terrorist organization.

Well, as you implied, this is actually part of a handful of decisions that Secretary of State Pompeo made on his way out. And when decisions like this are made at the very last minute with only say a week

left to go in the administration, you do start to have to be a little skeptical about the reasons and the motivations behind it.

If it were a necessary policy change that was close to American national security, which is what these changes are

our proposes being, you know, they would have done it before one week left in the

administration and all of these things are things that are going to trip the Biden administration up.

So not only did he designate the Huthi group in Yemen, a terrorist organization, but he also put Cuba

back on the terrorism list. He tried to, he announced an elimination of all the

restrictions for US officials and Taiwanese officials. So this is part of a set of things at the very end of the administration and I think it really is about

politics essentially. So with regard to the Huthies, this is a troubling announcement.

A little background on the Yemen War.

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