The US has targeted a number of individuals and entities for allegedly helping the flow of financial assistance to Yemen after failing to an international coalition against the country.
Yemen has lately come on the US radar for hostile measures after seeing the country’s armed forces intercept or target Israeli ships or vessels bound for Israeli ports in the Red Sea in a bid to deter Tel Aviv from its ongoing genocide in Gaza.
According to a US Treasury statement released on Thursday, the head of the Currency Exchangers Association in Sana’a and three exchange houses in Yemen and Turkey are designated for sanctions.
Those targeted were responsible for “facilitating the flow of financial assistance” to Yemen’s National Salvation Government and the country’s Ansarullah movement, it said.
The sanctions freeze any US assets belonging to the targeted entities and generally prohibit Americans from doing business with them.
Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson accused Ansarullah of conducting dangerous attacks on international shipping and destabilizing the region.
“The United States, along with our allies and partners, will continue to target the key facilitation networks that enable the destabilizing activities” of Ansarullah, it added.
In recent weeks, a series of seaborne strikes attributed to the Yemeni forces have been conducted in solidarity with the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip. Yemen has already warned it will prevent the passage of all ships in the Red Sea bound to the occupied territories.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a crucial waterway between Yemen and northeast Africa leading to the Red Sea, up to the Suez Canal and the Israeli port of Eilat. An estimated $1 trillion in goods pass through the strait annually.
The European Union earlier agreed to contribute to a US-led coalition against Yemeni armed forces which have targeted ships bound for Israel in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
But in a major setback, France, Spain, and Italy later officially withdrew their participation from the controversial alliance.
The three nations have explicitly stated their commitment to operating exclusively under the command of international bodies such as the United Nations, NATO, or the European Union, choosing not to align with the United States.
The leader of Ansarullah recently said Yemen’s armed forces will not hesitate to target US military warships in the Red Sea if Washington and its allies carry out military strikes against Yemen.
Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine’s struggle against the Israeli occupation since the Israeli regime launched a devastating war on Gaza on October 7 after Palestinian resistance movements carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has said Yemeni strikes against ships heading to Israel send a message to the West that they should stop the ongoing carnage or expect the crisis to expand across the region.
