Yemen’s National Defence Council labels Houthis as 'terror' organisation

Yemen’s National Defence Council on Saturday designated the Houthi rebels as a 'terror' organisation, Yemeni state media reported, a day after the Iran-backed Houthis claimed an attack on an oil port in the south of the country.

The decision came during a council meeting called to respond to the drone attack on an oil port in Hadramout province on Friday, the council said in a statement carried by Yemeni state media.

The attack, which the council called a "dangerous escalation", was the first of its kind since the expiry of a truce between the warring Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels on 2 October. 

The National Defence Council is headed by the leader of the Presidential Leadership Council, currently Rashad Muhammad Al-Alimi.

The presidential council is backed by the Saudi-led coalition, which intervened in 2015 to back the Yemeni government as it fought a civil war with the Houthis.

Yemen’s devastating war erupted when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa in 2014. 

Hundreds of thousands of people have died as a result of war.

The warring parties had agreed to a six-month truce earlier this year which expired on 2 October. Efforts by the UN envoy to Yemen to revive the truce ended in a stalemate early this month, as the Yemeni government and the Houthis failed to reach an agreement to extend it.