U.S. Treasury Department targets network financing Yemen’s Houthis

The U.S. Treasury Department announced Thursday that it has “sanctioned 13 individuals and entities responsible for providing tens of millions of dollars’ worth of foreign currency generated from the sale and shipment of Iranian commodities, backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, to the Houthis in Yemen.” 

“Through a complex network of exchange houses and companies in multiple jurisdictions, these persons, under the auspices of U.S.-sanctioned Houthi and IRGC-QF financial facilitator Sa’id al-Jamal, serve as an important conduit through which Iranian money reaches the country’s militant partners in Yemen,” the department said in a statement. 

“The Houthis continue to receive funding and support from Iran, and the result is unsurprising: unprovoked attacks on civilian infrastructure and commercial shipping, disrupting maritime security and threatening international commercial trade,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said. “Treasury will continue to disrupt the financial facilitation and procurement networks that enable these destabilizing activities.” 

The sanctions come after three commercial vessels were attacked in the Red Sea on Sunday, prompting a U.S. warship to shoot down multiple unmanned aerial vehicles headed toward them in a development that could signify a serious escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Middle East linked to the Israel-Hamas war. 

The USS Carney was in the southern Red Sea, just north of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, when it shot down three Houthi drones heading in its direction, a U.S. official told Fox News, adding that the action was taken in self-defense. The drones were launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, the official claimed.