The latest pressure campaign comes as the United States says the peace plan cannot move forward if attacks in the Red Sea persist, Bloomberg reports.
The United States and its allies are increasingly seeking to block funds from reaching Yemen’s Houthi group, a move that could undermine U.N.-led efforts to end the country’s civil war, reported Bloomberg News.
According to the report released Thursday, Washington is seeking to block major elements of a UN peace plan adopted in December by Yemen’s warring parties unless the Houthis stop their attacks on international sea lanes.
This includes $1.5 billion that will be paid by Saudi Arabia to officials in areas controlled by the Houthis, in line with the UN road map, Bloomberg reported, citing an unidentified source.
An unnamed State Department official told Bloomberg that deals related to the U.N. plan could only be reached if the Houthis stop their attacks, while adding that the United States still supports peace in Yemen.
The Houthis have attacked ships in the Red Sea and fired missiles and drones at Israeli targets in a show of support for Palestinians in Gaza, drawing the ire of US President Joe Biden’s administration.
The United States and its allies have been bombing Houthi targets in Yemen since January, but the military campaign has not deterred Houthi attacks. The Houthis have pledged to continue targeting ships linked to Israel as long as the war on Gaza, which has killed at least 36,654 Palestinians, continues.
Most recently, on Thursday, the group said it had targeted two ships in the Israeli port of Haifa.
Closure of ordered banks in Houthi territory
In March 2015, a Saudi-led military coalition launched what would become a years-long offensive to support Yemen’s internationally recognized government against the Iran-allied Houthis who had taken control of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.
The fighting, which sparked a major humanitarian crisis, has turned into a protracted conflict, with the Houthis retaining control of Sanaa and other major population centers, and the Saudi-backed government remaining in the city of Aden, in the south of the country.
The warring parties agreed in April 2022 to a ceasefire, which expired in October of the same year. But fighting has largely stopped amid diplomatic efforts to find a lasting solution to the conflict.
The UN’s December road map included “implementing a nationwide ceasefire, paying public sector salaries, resuming oil exports, opening roads in Taiz and other parts of Yemen” and the easing of remaining restrictions on Sanaa airport and Hodeidah port.
However, tensions between the Houthis and the internationally recognized government remain high, particularly on economic issues. U.S. efforts to squeeze the Houthis’ finances risk exacerbating them further.
In January, the Biden administration designated the Houthis as “global terrorists” due to their attacks on the Red Sea, a move that helped impose sweeping financial sanctions against the group.
According to a Bloomberg article published Thursday, the latest US move comes as the Central Bank of Yemen, which remains under the control of the Saudi-backed government, decided to suspend operations in banks located in areas controlled by the Houthis, particularly in Sanaa.
The central bank governor cited non-compliance with orders for all financial institutions to move their headquarters to Aden.
This measure is expected to stifle the Houthis’ access to foreign currencies and dry up the group’s liquidity. This was done with the support of the United States and its Western allies, Bloomberg reported, citing four people with direct knowledge of the situation.
Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi called the move against Sanaa-based banks a “US effort to benefit Israel,” adding that the United States is trying to drag Saudi Arabia into the move.
“It’s a dangerous game – a game of adding fuel to the fire,” Al-Houthi said last month.
The UN Special Office in Yemen, headed by Hans Grundberg, has repeatedly stated that Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and associated “international military responses to Yemen” threaten the fragile truce in Yemen.
After years of war, Yemen continues to face one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to the UN, with more than 18 million people in need of aid and more than 17 million more in need. situation of food insecurity. Around 4.5 million people in the country remain displaced.
Meanwhile, intermittent public sector wage payments have accelerated the collapse of health, sanitation, water and education services, according to the UN.
