WASHINGTON: The US Treasury blacklisted five Iranians who allegedly supplied ballistic missile technology to Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Tuesday, a day after Washington warned Tehran it faced the “strongest sanctions in history.”
The Treasury said the five placed on its sanctions list were linked to an operation by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to support Houthi attacks on cities in Saudi Arabia, which leads the Gulf coalition fighting the Yemeni rebels.
According to Riyadh, the Houthis have launched more than 130 ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia since 2015, many of them intercepted by anti-missile defence systems.
In November last year they launched a missile which reached Riyadh, and the attacks have increased this year.
Iran has denied supplying missiles to the Houthis, while the group has insisted that they developed the missiles themselves.
Actions by the Revolutionary Guards “have enabled the Houthis to launch missiles at Saudi cities and oil infrastructure,” said Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in a statement.
“The United States will not tolerate Iranian support for Houthi rebels who are attacking our close partner, Saudi Arabia. All countries in the region should be on guard to prevent Iran from sending its personnel, weapons, and funds in support of its proxies in Yemen,” he said.
Four of the five men hit with sanctions, which aim to lock them out of the global financial system, are senior officials in the Revolutionary Guard Aerospace Forces Al-Ghadir Missile Command.
The fifth was linked to a Revolutionary Guards unit responsible for researching and developing ballistic missiles.
Our correspondent adds: The IRGC officials designated on Tuesday include: Mehdi Azarpisheh of Al-Qods Force, Mohammad Agha Ja’fari of Al-Ghadir Missile Command, Mahmud Kazemabad Bagheri, also of Al-Ghadir Missile Command, Javed Bordbar Shir Amin, a senior IRGC official and Sayyed Mohammad Ali Haddadnezhad Tehrani of the IRGC’s Research and Self-Sufficiency Jehad Organisation.
A Washington think-tank, the Foundation for Defence of Democracies said that the Trump administration was targeting the IRGC because it has extensive business interests and in the last few decade, it has become a greater economic force than many small nations.
Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2018
