The United States has imposed sanctions on seven senior members of Yemen’s Ansarallah movement, known as the Houthis, and a Yemeni businessman, just one day after the State Department reclassified the group as a terrorist organization, reversing a 2021 decision under the previous administration.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that the sanctioned individuals were engaged in smuggling military-grade weaponry into Yemen and negotiating arms purchases from Russia. Among those targeted are the Houthi spokesman based in Oman, the head of the Supreme Political Council, and the leader of the Sana’a Chamber of Commerce.
While the Houthis are already under a United Nations arms embargo, these new U.S. measures impose additional restrictions. Yet experts question their effectiveness. Wolf-Christian Paes, who previously served on a U.N. panel monitoring Yemen, noted that enforcement remains the key challenge.
“The main shift with these sanctions lies in how the U.S. enforces them, as the U.N. lacks its own policing mechanisms,” Paes explained. “The real question is what steps Washington will take.”
The sanctions also targeted Abdulwali Abdoh Hasan Al-Jabri, a Yemeni businessman featured in an October 2024 investigation that revealed Yemeni recruits were lured into the Russian army under false pretenses. These recruits, promised non-combat roles with high salaries, found themselves on the front lines in Ukraine.
“While Yemeni recruits may not alter the course of Russia’s war, they appear significant enough for Moscow to invest resources in recruiting them,” Paes added.
Some recruits were working low-wage jobs in Oman when Al-Jabri’s company offered them about $3,000 monthly for security or construction positions with the Russian military. After signing contracts, they were deployed to combat zones.
Yemen’s military attaché in Russia, Brigadier General Fouad Al Muhtadi, downplayed the government’s ability to intervene, stating that volunteers then fall under Russian military law.
Al-Jabri, a member of the Houthi-linked parliament formed after the group seized Sana’a in 2014, was described by the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies as a former General People’s Congress figure who aligned with the Houthis. The U.S. Treasury labeled him a “Houthi militant operative” acting as a major general in the militia. In 2021, a military court representing Yemen’s recognized government sentenced him and 173 other Houthi leaders to death in absentia.
The Treasury also accused Al-Jabri of running a smuggling operation through his company, Al-Jabri General Trading and Investment Co., established in Oman in 2022. The extent of his involvement in weapons trafficking remains unclear, though a 2023 U.N. panel letter cited 10 seizures of materials destined for the Houthis, violating an arms embargo. One interception in the Gulf of Oman recovered nearly 2,000 assault rifles, some resembling Chinese and Russian models.
Abdulqader Al-Kharraz, a former senior Yemeni official, commented that these sanctions underscore Yemen’s complex role in global security.
“The movement of weapons from Russia to Yemen and the recruitment of Yemenis into the conflict in Ukraine reflect deepening ties between the Houthis and other nations,” he said. “This decision is a significant and long-overdue step that may help cut off their funding. Perhaps now the Yemeni authorities will act.”
The Houthi leadership did not respond to requests for comment.