The US Treasury issued a statement on Wednesday, announcing that Washington had imposed sanctions on an international network operated by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and a Houthi financier that provided tens of millions of dollars to Yemen’s Houthi group.
According to the US Treasury statement, the network includes individuals and shell corporations that transferred fuel, petroleum products, and commodities across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The money acquired these transactions financed Houthi attacks in Yemen and on its neighbors, the statement added.
The decision covers Abdo Abdullah Dael Ahmed, a UAE-and Sweden-based commodities trader, and his company Moaz Abdallah Dael Import and Export; Konstantinos Stavridis, a Greek businessperson based in the UAE and his firm, Fani Oil Trading FZE; Aurum Ship Management FZC, based in India, the UAE and Singapore, and its managing director, Chiranjeev Kumar Singh.
The sanction decision requires assets freezing of the designated entities and individuals that are subject to US jurisdiction. It also bans Americans from doing business with them.
The decision came following the Houthi group’s latest attacks targeting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Issuing a statement on the matter, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that his country closely coordinated the designations with its Gulf partners, urging the group to “end their campaign of violence” and “renew peace talks.”
Following the Houthi attacks, there is an increasing pressure by Abu Dhabi, Riyadh as well as some American lawmakers on the White House to designate the Houthi movement as a “foreign terrorist agency.”
On the other hand, 11 Democrat party members on Wednesday called Secretary Blinken not to take such a step, saying that such a move would “dramatically deepen the humanitarian crisis.”
Elsewhere, the UAE took a similar step on Wednesday, designating Dael and five companies, including his firm, as terrorists.
