U.S. Sanctions Shipping Company Over Links to Iran, Yemen's Houthis
The United States has imposed sanctions on a shipping company it accused of facilitating the transfer of Iranian commodities linked to a Houthi official to China. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the measures against the firm Vishnu Inc, registered in the Marshall Islands, saying that one of its vessels is involved in "illicit shipments". It said the cargo was "in support of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) and Houthi financial facilitator Sa'id al-Jamal, who is sanctioned under U.S. counterterrorism authorities". The sanctions come as the U.S. pushes to curb Houthi attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea. The Yemeni group says it has been targeting Israel-linked ships to help bring an end to the war on Gaza.
The IDF late Tuesday night admitted for the first time that the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen had penetrated the country's missile air defense. According to the IDF, reports of an unidentified object landing north of Eilat on Sunday night referred to a cruise missile that came from the direction of the Red Sea. Although the IDF did not specifically identify the Houthis, the Iranian-backed group in Yemen has tried to strike Israel with ballistic missiles numerous times for months.
The Southern Transitional Council (STC) de facto authorities must immediately and unconditionally release human rights lawyer Sami Yassin Ka'id Marsh, who has been arbitrarily detained without charge for four months merely for his work seeking accountability and justice for human rights violations in Yemen, Amnesty International said today. The security forces of the STC physically assaulted and arbitrarily detained Sami Yassin on 16 November 2023 as he was leaving work at the Supreme Judicial Council and Judicial Inspection in Khormaksar of Aden province. According to leaked letters from Sami Yassin, he was tortured and held in solitary confinement. On 6 March, he was transferred to Bir Ahmad prison in Aden, where he remains to date despite his serious health conditions.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, launching a tour of the Middle East to try to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza war as increasing strain showed in Washington's relationship with its ally Israel. In Gaza, where hopes were dashed for a ceasefire in the nearly six-month-old war in time for Ramadan last week, residents of Gaza City in the north described the most intense fighting for months around the Al Shifa hospital. On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed a plea from U.S. President Joe Biden to call off plans for a ground assault of Rafah, the city on the southern edge of Gaza sheltering more than half the enclave's 2.3 million people.
