The Trump administration sanctioned on Tuesday two people and five entities it says have laundered funds and imported oil products to support the Iranian-backed Houthis rebels in Yemen.
“The Houthis collaborate with opportunistic businessmen to reap enormous profits from the importation of petroleum products and to enable the group’s access to the international financial system,” stated Michael Faulkender, deputy U.S. Treasury secretary.
“These networks of shady businesses underpin the Houthis’ terrorist machine and Treasury will use all tools at its disposal to disrupt these schemes,” he stated.
Muhammad Al-Sunaydar, an oil importer based in Yemen and the United Arab Emirates, is being sanctioned for coordinating the import of Iranian petroleum.
Yahya Mohammed Al Wazir, whom the Treasury Department accuses of purchasing bulk coal for the Houthis with laundered funds through a front company, was also designated.
Several of their affiliated companies were also sanctioned, as was a Houthi-controlled cement factory implicated in money laundering for military improvements.
The Trump administration designated the Houthis as a terror group in the closing days of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term. The Biden administration delisted the Houthis to improve humanitarian conditions in war-ravaged Yemen, it said.
Trump added the Houthis back to the terror list in March. The Houthis have fired a large number of ballistic missiles at Israel and have blocked commercial traffic through the Red Sea. The group says it will desist when Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza ends.
