Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two key militants of the Iranian-backed Ansarallah, sometimes referred to as the Houthis, whose actions have prolonged Yemen’s civil war and exacerbated the country’s humanitarian crisis. Mansur Al-Sa’adi and Ahmad ‘Ali Ahsan al-Hamzi are responsible for orchestrating attacks by Houthi forces impacting Yemeni civilians, bordering nations, and commercial vessels in international waters. Mansur Al-Sa’adi, who serves as the Houthi Naval Forces Chief of Staff, has masterminded lethal attacks against international shipping in the Red Sea. The Houthi Naval Forces have repeatedly dispersed naval mines, which strike vessels irrespective of their civilian or military character. According to international human rights organizations, the use of naval mines in the Yemen civil war poses a risk to commercial, fishing, and humanitarian aid vessels.
Mansur Al-Sa’adi, who has received extensive training in Iran, has also helped smuggle Iranian weapons into Yemen.
Ahmad ‘Ali Ahsan al-Hamzi, the commander of Yemen’s Houthi-aligned Yemeni Air Force and Air Defense Forces, as well as its UAV program, has acquired Iranian-made weapons for use in the Yemen civil war. Houthi military forces under Major General Ahmad ‘Ali al-Hamzi’s command have carried out targeted UAV strikes. Like Al-Sa’adi, al-Hamzi has received training in Iran.
On November 9, 2012, OFAC issued the Yemen Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 552 (the “Regulations”) (77 FR 67276, November 9, 2012), to implement Executive Order 13611 of May 16, 2012, “Blocking Property of Persons Threatening the Peace, Security, or Stability of Yemen” (77 FR 29533, May 18, 2012) (E.O. 13611). The Regulations were initially issued in abbreviated form for the purpose of providing immediate guidance to the public. OFAC is amending and reissuing the Regulations as a more comprehensive set of regulations that includes additional interpretive and definitional guidance, general licenses, statements of licensing policy, and other regulatory provisions that will provide further guidance to the public. Due to the number of regulatory sections being updated or added, OFAC is reissuing the Regulations in their entirety.
Executive Order 13611. On May 16, 2012, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701–1706) (IEEPA), issued E.O. 13611. In E.O. 13611, the President found that the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Yemen and others threaten Yemen's peace, security, and stability, including by obstructing the implementation of the agreement of November 23, 2011, between the Government of Yemen and those in opposition to it, which provides for a peaceful transition of power that meets the legitimate demands and aspirations of the Yemeni people for change, and by obstructing the political process in Yemen. The President further found that these actions constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.
