March 5 (UPI) — The U.S. Treasury Department Wednesday sanctioned Houthi leaders and one company for alleged weapons smuggling and procurement.
Sanctioned were Mohammad Abdulsalam, Eshaq Abdulmalek Abdullah Almarwani, Mahdi Mohammed Hussein Al-Mashat, Mohamed Ali Al-Houthi, Ali Muhammad Muhsin Salih Al-Hadi, Abdulmalek Abdullah Mohammed E Alagri and Khaled Hussein Saleh Gaber.
Treasury also sanctioned Abdulwali Abdoh Hasan Al-Jabri and his company Al-Jabri General Trading and Investment Co.
“By seeking weapons from a growing array of international suppliers, Houthi leaders have shown their intent to continue their reckless and destabilizing actions in the Red Sea region,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a statement. “The United States will use all available tools to disrupt the Houthis’ terrorist activities and degrade their ability to threaten U.S. personnel, our regional partners, and global maritime trade.”
According to Treasury, the sanctioned individuals are high-ranking Houthi operatives who have communicated with Russia and China as they seek to procure and smuggle weapons.
They have also allegedly recruited Yemenis to fight for Russia in the Ukraine war and smuggled military-grade weapons systems in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and also negotiated Houthi weapons from Russia, according to the Treasury Department.
“Houthi leaders have devised numerous revenue-generating schemes to enable their attack campaign, often at the expense of Yemen’s most vulnerable populations. In one such effort, individuals acting on behalf of the Houthis operated a lucrative human smuggling operation, recruiting Yemeni civilians to fight for Russia in Ukraine, often under false and misleading pretenses,” the Treasury said.
Al-Jabri was accused by the Treasury Department of using his company to “facilitate the transfer of Yemeni civilians to Russian military units fighting in Ukraine in exchange for cash.”