WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday announced sanctions on what it called members of a smuggling network that generates tens millions of dollars for Yemen’s Houthis, pressuring the Iran-aligned movement to accept a ceasefire and peace talks.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has sought to advance a UN effort to ease Yemen’s dire humanitarian crisis and end the war pitting the Houthis against the government and the Arab coalition.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated a call for the Houthis to accept a nationwide ceasefire and a resumption of talks on a political settlement to the seven-year-old conflict.
“The United States will continue to apply pressure to the Houthis, including through targeted sanctions, to advance those goals,” he said in a statement.
Twelve individuals and entities were slapped with terrorism-related sanctions blocking any US property they hold, and barring Americans from doing business with them. Foreign financial institutions that deal with them could be blacklisted.
The network works with Iran’s Quds Force, the elite arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, to generate “tens of millions of dollars in revenue from the sale of commodities, like Iranian petroleum,” a US Treasury statement said.
A “significant portion” of the funds are “directed through a complex network of intermediaries and exchange houses in multiple countries to the Houthis in Yemen,” it continued.
Funds also underwrite “destabilizing regional activities” of the Quds Force and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, it said.
The network, it said, is headed by Said Ahmad Muhammad Al-Jamal, an Iran-based Yemeni who oversees the smuggling “of Iranian fuel, petroleum products, and other commodities to customers throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.”

CAIRO: The first Cairo Construction Hub (CCH) was inaugurated on Thursday under the auspices of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly.

The CCH is an exhibition and an educational conference. Its main goal is to boost development and construction projects in Egypt.

It offers a platform for the construction community to come together through live product showcases, business networking and knowledge-sharing experiences.

The inauguration was attended by ministers, ambassadors, and representatives of major companies from the construction and real estate development sectors.

CCH organizer Ahmed Hashem said several events were being lined up under one roof, the most prominent of which was the Urban Development & Sustainable Construction Summit, headed by Neveen Abdel Khaleq.

It will be attended by all officials and institutions linked with the CCH. Palestine’s ambassador in Cairo, Diab Al-Louh, will attend the opening session.

Last Friday, Egypt sent engineers and building equipment to Gaza to begin reconstruction work after Israeli airstrikes left a trail of destruction in the Palestinian enclave.

Egypt brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza rulers Hamas, following which President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi allocated $500 million to fund the rebuilding of devastated areas in Gaza. Egypt also took care of the treatment of those injured in the attacks.

There will be meetings in Cairo on Saturday and Sunday between Palestinian factions. These will focus on pending issues to achieve reconciliation and agree on the mechanisms for the reconstruction of Gaza.

Sources said the meetings would also discuss urgent issues including easing Gaza’s siege and the ceasefire.

WASHINGTON: The US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice programme said Thursday it was offering a reward of up to $3 million for information on attacks against Americans in Iraq.
The announcement comes a day after an attack was carried out with three “explosive-laden” drones on Baghdad airport, where US troops are deployed.
“O faithful people of Iraq, cowardly terrorists are attacking US diplomatic missions in Iraq, then they are fleeing to hide among civilians,” said a statement in Arabic on the Twitter account of Rewards for Justice.
“America is offering a reward of up to $3 million for information on planned attacks or past ones against American diplomatic installations,” said the statement, which was accompanied by a video.
It provided a US telephone number, and said the information could be sent via the messaging apps Whatsapp, Telegram or Signal.
US interests in Iraq have come under repeated attacks since October 2019, including with rockets, with the United States routinely blaming them on Iran-backed factions.
Since the beginning of the year, a total of 42 attacks have targeted the US embassy in Baghdad, Iraqi bases housing US troops or Iraqi convoys carrying logistical support.
The latest attack on Wednesday was carried out with three drones packed with explosives, the Iraqi army said on Thursday.
It said one of the drones had been intercepted by air defences Wednesday evening, the fourth such drone attack in less than two months.
Experts say the use of such drones marks an escalation in attacks against American interests by pro-Iranian forces.
The techniques are similar to those deployed by the Houthis in Yemen against Saudi Arabia.
Wednesday’s attack was the first such attack on targets in the Iraqi capital, the Arab world’s second-most populated city.
On Wednesday, five rockets also landed at Balad, an airbase further north where American contractors are based, a security source said.
They did not cause any casualties or damage, the source said.
The Balad base has been targeted so regularly that US weapons firm Lockheed Martin withdrew last month, citing concerns about the safety of its personnel.
Pro-Iran groups on Wednesday had hailed what they described as “one more victory” for the state-affiliated Hashed Al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition, as commander Qassem Muslah was released.
Muslah had been arrested in May by police intelligence on suspicion of ordering the killing of Ihab al-Wazni, a pro-democracy activist shot dead earlier that month by unidentified gunmen on motorbikes.
Iraqi authorities have repeatedly blamed “outlaws” of carrying out “terrorist” attacks with rockets or explosive-laded drones but have struggled to identify those behind these assaults.

SAMARRA, Iraq: Five rockets Wednesday evening targeted Iraq’s Balad air base, with two of the projectiles falling near an area used by US contractors without causing casualties, a security official told AFP.
“There were no victims or damage,” the official said. Balad air base, north of Baghdad, is used by US company Sallyport to service F-16 fighter jets and has previously been targeted by rocket fire.

CAIRO: Sudan and Egypt renewed calls Wednesday for the international community to help in resolving their decade-long dispute with Ethiopia over a giant dam that Addis Ababa is building on the Blue Nile, the main tributary of the Nile River.
Egyptian foreign and irrigation ministers flew to Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, for talks with Sudanese counterparts focusing on Ethiopia’s dam project.
Tensions have mounted since the African Union-mediated talks between the three nations stalled in April.
In a joint statement after the meetings Wednesday, Egypt and Sudan warned of “serious risks and grave consequences of the unilateral filling” of the dam’s massive reservoir. They fear Ethiopia will reduce their share of the Nile River water.
Cairo and Khartoum want an international agreement to govern how much water Ethiopia releases downstream, especially in a multi-year drought. Sudan and Egypt argue that Ethiopia’s plan to add 13.5 billion cubic meters of water in 2021 to the dam’s reservoir is a threat to them.
They have repeatedly called for the US, UN, and the European Union to help reach a legally binding deal.
There was no immediate comment from Ethiopia. Addis Ababa says the $5 billion dam is essential, arguing the vast majority of its population lacks electricity.
The Blue Nile meets with the White Nile in the Sudanese capital. From Khartoum, it winds northward through Egypt and flows into the Mediterranean Sea.