The U.S. government has sanctioned a third ship captain in connection with a Yemeni Houthi tanker. Whose vessel has been repeatedly attacked in the Red Sea since last fall by Yemeni Houthi rebels. Wounding and also killing several crew members. The decision to blacklist a privately licensed officer is new and marks an escalation in the U.S. Treasury Department’s attempts to curb funding to Iranian-backed militant groups.
The Houthis receive funds and weapons from the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The IRGC funds its destabilizing activities through the illicit sale of Iranian oil facilitated. By a shady network of foreign traders and also dark fleet tankers. Iran’s oil sector is subject to stringent U.S. sanctions. But the IRGC has managed to thoroughly circumvent and also undermine these restrictions through covert means.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department, Houthi financier Saeed al-Jamal and also his allies. Helped the Revolutionary Guard secure authorized shipments of oil to overseas, primarily Asian buyers. On Monday, Treasury officials identified the Cameroon-flagged tanker Otaria as one of the ships in the Dark Fleet. The vessel is operated by United Arab Emirates-based Stellar Wave LLC, and also the Treasury Department identified the captain as Ukrainian national Khujakeslav Saliga.
Foreign Assets Control
As of Monday, Stellar Wave LLC, Captain Saliga, and Otaria were blacklisted by the Office of Foreign Assets Control for activities in support of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. The timing could be especially problematic for the Otaria, as the ship is currently en route to Singapore with a cargo of sanctioned raw materials. “The sale provides the Houthis with a significant source of funding for their arms procurement,” the paper said. Treasury Department.
“The Houthis’ relentless, indiscriminate, and also reckless attacks on unarmed merchant vessels are enabled by their access to key components necessary for the production of missiles and also drones,” said Brian E. Nelson, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “The United States remains committed to using all resources to disrupt the flows of military supplies and also cash from commodity sales that enable these destabilizing terrorist activities.
This is the third time in a week that the Treasury Department has blacklisted a sailor. On June 10, officials appointed the ship’s captain. Vivek Ashok Pandey (Captain of the tanker Olympic) and Captain Sandeep Singh Chaudhary (Captain of the tanker La Perle) are on the sanctions list. Both companies were listed for allegedly facilitating trade of sanctioned oil with Iran.
