By Al-Fassel | 2024-03-12

Joint US-UK sanctions announced in late February are targeting the deputy commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF) and key facilitators of Yemen's Houthi militias.

IRGC-QF deputy commander Mohammad Reza Falahzadeh is "a Houthi-affiliated operative who has supported the Houthis' aggressive actions," the US State Department said.

The Houthis' indiscriminate attacks on ships transiting the Red Sea over the past few months have wreaked havoc on the global economy and worsened the already dire humanitarian situation in Yemen.

The UK government said it sanctioned the IRGC-QF's Unit 190 -- which is "in charge of transferring and smuggling weapons to organizations, groups and states that are allied with Iran" -- along with its Unit 6000 and Unit 340.

Unit 6000 oversees operations on the Arabian Peninsula and has personnel in Yemen supporting Houthi military activity, it said, while Unit 340 provides "training and technical support to groups backed by Iran."

"The IRGC-QF has provided the Houthis with an increasingly sophisticated arsenal of weapons and the training to deploy these weapons against commercial shipping and civilian infrastructure," the US Treasury said.

Iranian military officials also have provided intelligence support for targeting of vessels transiting the region, it added, which enables the Houthis' dozens of attacks on international shipping.

The United States also blacklisted Ibrahim al-Nashiri, a member of the Houthis who owned and operated a vessel that carried Iranian commodities in support of both the Houthis and IRGC-QF, while the United Kingdom sanctioned Houthi security minister Ali Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi "for threatening the peace, security and stability of Yemen by supporting attacks against shipping in the Red Sea."