Ansarullah Official: US Sanctions Part of Systematic Scheme to Choke off Yemeni’s Economy 

By Staff, Agencies

The member of Yemen's Supreme Political Council, Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, condemned the United States Treasury Department’s decision to impose sanctions on a network that it asserted helps fund Yemen's Ansarullah revolutionary movement. 

He further slammed the measure “that falls within a systematic plot aimed at suffocating the impoverished state’s economy.”

“[The United States of] America prioritizes the option of war in Yemen at the same time as pretending to be supportive of peace. The imposition of sanctions on the pretext of securing peace represents an obstacle to the latter,” Al-Houthi wrote in a post published on his Twitter page.

He underlined that the recent punitive measures against Yemeni private sector following bans on the country’s central bank, airstrikes on factories and production plants, starvation of Yemenis through tight blockade as well as cessation to pay civil service salaries are all crimes, which fall within a systematic plot to exterminate the Yemeni economy.

The US Treasury on Thursday slapped sanctions on a money network funding Yemen’s Ansarullah movement, claiming in a statement that “This network generates tens of millions of dollars in revenue from the sale of commodities, like Iranian petroleum, a significant portion of which is then directed through a complex network of intermediaries and exchange houses in multiple countries to the Houthis.”

Among those identified as targets of the newly announced US sanctions were two Yemenis, two Syrians, one Emirati, one Somali and one Indian national, as well as entities based in Dubai, Istanbul and Yemen's capital, Sana’a.

Separately, Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a senior member of Ansarullah's political bureau, told Al-Mayadeen television news network on Thursday evening that Saudi-led coalition forces and their mercenaries are legitimate targets for Yemeni Armed Forces and fighters from allied Popular Committees as long as the atrocious military campaign and brutal siege against Yemen continue.

 “We warn the aggressor countries that the presence of their forces in Yemen will subject them to attacks. Death is the destiny of foreign troops deployed to Yemen,” Al-Bukhaiti said.