US issues new sanctions on alleged Houthi financing network

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.