The Times of Israel newspaper said that the Israeli government is pressing the administration of US President Joe Biden to classify the Houthi group in Yemen as a "terrorist organization" at the request of the UAE.
The newspaper quoted an Israeli official as saying that Abu Dhabi recruited Tel Aviv to pressure Washington to classify the Houthis as a terrorist group, after their recent attacks on the UAE.
The Israeli official added that his country had informed the Biden administration that reclassifying the Houthis as a terrorist organization would limit Iran's "reckless" influence in the region.
"We are not doing this for the sake of the Emiratis only, we believe that such a step is in everyone's interest," he added.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry declined to respond to a request by The Times of Israel to comment on the matter.
Emirati pressure
And the US news website Huffington Post had quoted sources saying that the UAE had contracted with a pressure group called Akin Gump to push the US administration to reclassify the Houthis as a terrorist organization.
The sources said that Republican members of Congress and former officials in the administration of former US President Donald Trump are leading efforts to convince lawmakers of the need to reclassify the Houthis.
The sources pointed out, according to the same website, that the White House national security team is engaged in a struggle between the necessity of punishing the Houthis and the fear that their reclassification would cause starvation for millions of Yemenis.
She indicated that President Joe Biden's aides will present a final recommendation to him regarding the Houthis this month.
The UAE asked the United States to reclassify the Yemeni Houthi group on the list of terrorism, after the group claimed attacks on a number of areas in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi at the end of last January, killing 3 people.
And the administration of US President Joe Biden had previously canceled, a month after the president took office in January 2021, the decision of the administration of former President Donald Trump to put the Houthi group on the list of terrorism.
The Biden administration justified its decision that this designation impedes the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Yemeni people.
Yemen has been witnessing for nearly 7 years a continuous war between the pro-government forces backed by an Arab military alliance led by the Saudi neighbor with the participation of the UAE, and the Iranian-backed Houthis, who have controlled several governorates, including the capital, Sanaa, since September 2014.