It was earlier Thursday that the United States imposed new sanctions on a suspected group of money-bartering services based in Yemen and Turkey for alleged financial support to Houthi rebels backed by Iran.
TOPSHOT - A picture taken on May 14, 2019, shows a general view of the Hodeida port in the Yemeni port city, around 230 kilometres west of the capital Sanaa. - Yemen's Huthi rebels have handed over security of key Red Sea ports to the "coastguard" but much work remains to remove military equipment, the UN said.
The rebels have been focusing their attention on the Southern section of the Red Sea.Those included in said sanctions are a head financial broker based in Sana'a, Yemen as well as three exchange houses based in Turkey and the aforementioned Yemen.
According to Fatima Hussein of the Associated Press, the United States Treasury "Alleges that the people and firms helped transfer millions of dollars to the Houthis at the direction of sanctioned Iranian financial facilitator Sa'id al-Jamal".
The sanctions themselves prevent access to United States-based property, and bank accounts and prevent the group as well as various companies from doing business with Americans.
This is yet another wave of sanctions from earlier this month when the US introduced sanctions against 13 people including firms that have allegedly been supplying millions from the sale and shipment of Iranian-based goods to the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
In a statement to the Associated Press, Brian E. Nelson, the Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, stated that the steps that were taken on Thursday "Underscore our resolve to restrict the illicit flow of funds to the Houthis, who continue to conduct dangerous attacks on international shipping and risk further destabilizing the region" and that the US along with its allies will "Continue to target the key facilitation networks that enable the destabilizing activities of the Houthis and their backers in Iran".
In the past, the Houthis rebels have only on occasion taken aim at the ships but as the conflict between Israel and Hamas escalated so have the attacks. Although, according to the Associated Press, Houthi rebel leaders "Have insisted Israel is their target".
