US issues new sanctions on alleged Houthi financing network
New sanctions come as Yemeni rebels ramped up attacks against Saudi Arabia and the UAE in recent weeks.
The United States has issued fresh sanctions on alleged members of an illicit network financing Yemen’s Houthi rebels, citing the group’s involvement in the continuing war in Yemen and recent drone and missile attacks on Washington’s Gulf allies.
In a statement on Wednesday, the US Department of the Treasury said the network “has transferred tens of millions of dollars to Yemen via a complex international network of intermediaries in support of the Houthis’ attacks”.
The new sanctions target alleged front companies and ships that the US says worked with a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to smuggle petroleum and other commodities around the Middle East, Asia, and Africa to help fund the Houthis.
“Despite pleas to negotiate an end to this devastating conflict, Houthi leaders continue to launch missile and unmanned aerial vehicle attacks against Yemen’s neighbors, killing innocent civilians, while millions of Yemeni civilians remain displaced and hungry,” Treasury Under-secretary Brian E Nelson said in the statement.
The Houthi rebels have ramped up their missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabia and started directly targeting the UAE in recent weeks, but the penalties appeared to fall short of the tougher measures that the Saudis and Emiratis, key strategic partners of the US, had sought from the Biden administration.
US officials have been in talks with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as the crisis in Ukraine worsens high petroleum prices and a supply shortfall globally.
President Joe Biden said last month that the US was considering redesignating the Houthis and Houthi leaders as “terrorists”, a step that typically carries harsh US government penalties for those doing business with them.
Rights groups and aid organizations have cautioned against blacklisting the Houthis, however, saying that such a move would worsen the humanitarian crisis in the country, where millions face deepening hunger and poverty.
On Wednesday, a group of US senators led by Chris Murphy urged (PDF) the Biden administration not to redesignate the rebels, saying such a move “would precipitate an economic collapse, dramatically deepen the country’s severe humanitarian crisis, and could undermine the prospects for peace in Yemen”.
The Trump administration imposed the “terrorist” designation on the Houthis in its last days. The Biden administration lifted it as one of its first acts as aid groups said the penalties would scare away commercial food suppliers and humanitarian efforts. An estimated 80 percent of Yemenis live in territory under Houthi control.
The Biden administration last year sanctioned a man is accused of acting as the Houthis’ lead financier, Sa’id al Jamal, as well as other alleged members of the smuggling network. Wednesday’s sanctions name additional individuals and businesses that it said were part of al Jamal’s network.
The measures, which the US said were imposed in “coordination and collaboration” with its Gulf partners, also targeted traders and money exchange houses based in Yemen, the UAE, Turkey, and other countries.
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