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WFP Chief: US Terrorist Designation of Yemen's Houthis 'Catastrophic'

Margaret Besheer

   NEW YORK - The head of the World Food Program appealed to the Trump
   Administration Thursday to reverse its decision designating a Yemeni
   rebel group as a terrorist entity, saying millions would slide into
   famine in the war-torn country as a result because food imports would
   shrink.

   "We are struggling now without the designation; with the designation,
   it's going to be catastrophic," said WFP Chief David Beasley, an
   American who was nominated to his U.N. post by President Donald Trump.
   "It is literally going to be a death sentence to hundreds of thousands,
   if not millions of innocent people in Yemen."

   Late Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that he
   plans'¯to'¯designate the Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group a "Foreign
   Terrorist Organization" (FTO) -- a tool used to disrupt financial
   support to terrorist networks.

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