US, UK Impose Sanctions on IRG, Ansarullah Members

By Staff, Agencies

The United States and Britain have announced sanctions against a high-ranking member of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards [IRG] and certain members of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement.

The move comes amid escalated tensions over the targeting of “Israel”-linked shipping in the Red Sea.

The US Treasury Department said in a statement on Tuesday that Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Fallahzadeh, the deputy commander of the IRG’s Quds Force, and Ibrahim al-Nashiri, a member of Ansarullah, had been placed on Washington’s sanctions list.

The department also blacklisted Cap Tees Shipping Co., Ltd, which owns and operates a vessel for shipping Iranian commodities, over accusations of providing support both to Al-Quds Force and the Yemeni resistance movement.

And Britain’s Foreign Office said the UK’s sanctions targeted Fallahzadeh, three units of Al-Quds Force as well as Ali Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi, the commander of Yemen’s security forces, and Saeed al-Jamal, a financier who heads a network of vessels.

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron accused Iran of backing the Yemeni resistance movement and claimed the Islamic Republic “bears responsibility” for latest attacks by the Yemeni military on ships either owned by “Israel” or sailing to the occupied territories in the Red Sea.

Iran has on numerous occasions asserted that the resistance forces across the region take no orders from the Islamic Republic and act independently on their own accord.

The maritime attacks have forced some of the biggest shipping and oil companies to suspend transit through one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes.

The United States and Britain have been carrying out strikes against Yemen since early January, after Washington and its allies offered “Israel” their full support amid attacks by Yemeni forces on those ships in the Red Sea.