The United States imposed new sanctions on the Houthis on Friday, targeting networks that U.S. officials say help fund the group’s attacks and destabilizing activity in the region.
The U.S. Treasury Department said that it designated 12 people and entities and a vessel linked to oil transfers, weapons and dual-use procurement and financial services that support the Houthis.
The department said that the move targets “financial conduits between the Iranian government and the Houthis,” including “front companies, facilitators and operatives located in Yemen, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.”
The Houthis finance their control of northern Yemen in part by profiting from the trade in basic goods, including food, medicine and fuel. Most of Yemen’s limited oil reserves lie outside of Houthi-controlled territory, but the terrorist group is able to charge what the Treasury Department called “exorbitant prices” for oil and oil derivatives.
Much of Yemen’s infrastructure, including water supplies and electricity, relies on diesel generators to function.
That oil is in large part provided by Iran, which “both sells and provides a free monthly shipment of oil to the Houthis using Iranian-owned or affiliated companies based in Dubai,” the Treasury Department stated.
Scott Bessent, U.S. treasury secretary, stated that “the Houthis threaten the United States by committing acts of terror and attacking commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea.”
“Treasury will use all tools at its disposal to expose the networks and individuals enabling Houthi terrorism,” he said.
Tommy Piggot, principal deputy State Department spokesman, stated that “by targeting the illicit front companies and facilitators that sustain the Houthis, we are depriving Houthi terrorists of the resources they need to carry out their reckless and destabilizing actions.”
