The Treasury Department announced a series of new sanctions on Thursday against companies accused of helping finance Yemen’s Houthi terrorist group, an attempt to limit the windfall of funding made available to the Houthis after President Joe Biden chose to delist them as a terror organization in 2021.
The Houthis, formally identified by the name “Ansar Allah,” are a Shiite jihadist terror organization whose motto is “Allahu Akbar, Death to America, Death to Israel, a Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam.” The Houthis overthrew the legitimate government of Yemen in 2014 and have waged a devastating civil war in the country since then, causing widespread disease and starving the country’s millions of civilians. The group has long survived on generous financial backing from Iran, the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism.
Houthi leaders declared war on the nation of Israel in October as a show of solidarity with Hamas, the genocidal jihadist group responsible for killing an estimated 1,200 people, abducting 250 others, and going on a spree of gang rape, torture, mutilation, and infanticide in Israel on October 7. The main act of war the Houthis have engaged in is an attempt to blockade ships trying to reach Israel through the Red Sea, or any ship the terrorists deem remotely connected to Israel in any way. The attempted blockade has greatly disrupted global travel as shipping companies reroute to avoid the Middle East entirely, forcing them to take the long ancient route around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa.
An Israeli flag is placed next to a house destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023. The kibbutz was overrun by Hamas militants from the nearby Gaza Strip on Oct.7, when they killed and captured many Israelis (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit).
The Biden administration has done little to respond to the threat the Houthis have posed to global commerce. The Pentagon announced the creation of an alleged coalition named “Operation Prosperity Guardian” to send naval resources to protect commercial ships near the Red Sea. The coalition, the Biden administration claimed, was composed of 20 members, but nearly half of them remain anonymous, and many have refused to send ships, making them partners almost entirely in name only. Some alleged partners, such as Spain, contradicted Washington, claiming they had not decided to join “Operation Prosperity Guardian.”
American assets in the region have shot down Houthi drones and missiles aimed at U.S. navy ships or other targets, but Biden has refused to directly attack Houthi military bases, leaving their ability to continue drone and missile assaults untouched.
Following a week of unsuccessful attempts to subdue the Houthi threat, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on Thursday a series of measures meant to keep funding out of Houthi coffers. OFAC sanctioned three currency exchange houses and Sa’id al-Jamal, the alleged leader of a Houthi financing network, to address their “facilitating the flow of Iranian financial assistance to Houthi forces and their destabilizing activities.”
“The Sa’id al-Jamal network relies on a web of exchange houses based throughout the Middle East to facilitate the movement of Iranian funds to Houthi-aligned financial firms in Yemen,” OFAC explained in a press release announcing the sanctions. “These funds are ultimately transferred to the Houthis or affiliated businesses located throughout the region.”
“Türkiye-based Al Aman Kargo Ithalat Ihracat Ve Nakliyat Limited Sirketi (Al Aman),” one of the sanctioned entities, “serves as a waypoint for money sent by the Houthis’ Iranian financiers to the group’s businesses in Yemen,” OFAC alleged. Another sanctions target, Nabco Money Exchange and Remittance Co. (Nabco), “serves as a financial intermediary to transfer funds to and from Yemen and has received millions of dollars in this fashion from the IRGC-QF on behalf of Sa’id al-Jamal’s network.”
IRGC-QF is an Iranian military terrorist organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force. The IRGC is a U.S.-desginated terrorist organization and a formal wing of the Iranian armed forces. The Quds Force is its international terrorism unit, often responsible for cover operations.
An unidentified Iranian missile stands on display in front of a large portrait of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a square in south Tehran (ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images).
“Today’s action underscores our resolve to restrict the illicit flow of funds to the Houthis, who continue to conduct dangerous attacks on international shipping and risk further destabilizing the region,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson declared. “The United States, along with our allies and partners, will continue to target the key facilitation networks that enable the destabilizing activities of the Houthis and their backers in Iran.”
The sanctions will make it illegal for Americans to do business with those targeted and will freeze any assets they possess in America, if any. They will not directly affect the Houthi terrorist organization, however, as it remains absent from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The Treasury has no power to alter the State Department list.
Biden’s State Department removed the Houthis from the Foreign Terrorist Organization list in early 2021 as one of Biden’s first acts in office. State Department officials nakedly admitted that the Houthis had not, in any way, altered their behavior or abandoned terrorism but claimed that the listing prevented international humanitarian aid from entering Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. By March, the State Department admitted that the Houthis stole humanitarian aid now flowing to Yemen, rather than distributing it to civilians.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken stands alongside President Joe Biden (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images).
“We call on all parties to provide unhindered access for humanitarian actors to deliver assistance to those who need it most,” a State spokesperson told Breitbart News in March 2021. “Ongoing interference in international aid operations by the Houthis in Yemen has prevented millions of people from receiving the assistance they need to survive.”
In July of that year, State Department spokesman Ned Price declared the Biden administration “beyond fed up” with the Houthis but did not indicate any inclination to return them to the terrorist designation list.
