US targets Houthi and Hezbollah-linked shipping network
SMA NEWS – WASHINGTON
The US has imposed further sanctions aimed at shipping operations linked to Houthi and Hezbollah trade networks.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it targeted several companies, individuals and vessels accused of being involved in the shipment of Iranian commodities to Yemen and the United Arab Emirates on behalf of Houthi financial facilitator Sa’id al-Jamal and for facilitating Hezbollah shipments of LPG.
The Houthi-linked sanctions were placed on Marshall Islands-registered KDS Shipping, Arafat Shipping and DP Shipping; UAE-based ONX Trading and KFD General Trading; Malaysia-based Transmarine Navigation; and Indian national Arif Ibrahim Khot.
Seven more ships were added to the sanctions list, pushing the total number of ships barred by the US for doing business with Iran this year to 50.
Three ships were associated with the Houthi trade network, which the Treasury said helps finance the Houthis’ targeting of shipping in the Red Sea and civilian infrastructure.
The Palau-flagged LPG tanker LPG OM, owned and operated by KDS Shipping, and Arafat Shipping-owned Raha Gas have been accused of carrying multiple shipments of LPG worth millions of dollars on behalf of Sa’id al-Jamal, falsely identified as having loaded in the UAE to Yemen. Khot captains the Raha Gas and had directed the LPG shipment to Yemen, the Treasury said, while ONX Trading facilitated illicit payments related to the al-Jamal network’s shipping operations.
Additionally, the Palau-flagged products tanker Divine Power, owned and operated by DP Shipping, is said to have shipped millions of dollars worth of fuel oil to the UAE and engaged in a ship-to-ship transfer with earlier sanctioned suezmax tanker Mehle.
Also targeted were Hezbollah shipments of LPG, including through the designation of a Hong Kong-based shipmanager and operator, Kai Heng Long Global Energy, and its four VLGCs, Fengshun, formerly known as the Venus 7, Victoria, Lady Liberty and Parvati.
The Treasury said the Hezbollah-controlled Talaqi Group used the Fengshun and Victoria to ship LPG worth tens of millions of dollars. The two ships were involved in an STS operation in Singapore in early July, with Iranian LPG volumes ultimately delivering to China.
The move freezes any US assets of those targeted and generally bars Americans from dealing with them.
“Today’s action underscores our continued commitment to disrupting Iran’s primary source of funding to its regional terrorist proxies like Lebanese Hizballah and the Houthis,” said Bradley Smith, Treasury’s Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
“Our message is clear: those who seek to finance these groups’ destabilising activities will be held to account.”
