The Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen on Tuesday threatened to impose “sanctions” against 13 American oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Marathon Petroleum.
When the Houthis speak of “sanctions,” they mean terrorist attacks and piracy, which would nullify a ceasefire agreement they reached with the Trump administration in May.
The Houthis are a jihadist insurgency that displaced the legitimate government of Yemen by capturing the capital city of Sanaa in 2014. The insurgency refers to itself as “Ansar Allah,” or “Army of Allah,” and uses the slogan “Death to America, Death to Israel, a Curse on the Jews.” The Iranian regime is the primary supplier of weapons to the Houthis.
After Hamas launched the Gaza war by attacking Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, the Houthis began launching drone and missile strikes at ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. They have also indulged in old-fashioned piracy by capturing ships at sea. The Houthis claim most of their targets are somehow linked to Israel, although these links are usually tenuous at best.
After the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes against their coastal positions earlier this year, the Houthis agreed to “pause” their attacks on shipping, although they did not commit to halting attacks on Israel.
President Donald Trump said in May that “every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of Iran.”
On Monday, a Dutch-flagged cargo ship called the Minervagracht was set on fire in the Gulf of Aden by a missile attack. The ship’s 19 crew were evacuated by helicopter, two of them with significant injuries.
Eyewitnesses said they saw the Monday missile being launched from Yemen, and the French military promptly identified the Houthis as the culprit. The Houthis finally took responsibility for the attack on Tuesday, claiming the Minervagracht was attacked because it violated a Houthi ban on docking at “the ports of occupied Palestine,” by which they mean Israel.
The Houthis have an office known as the “Humanitarian Operations Co-ordination Center” or HOCC, which has nothing to do with humanitarianism – it is the front office through which the Houthis make terrorist threats against international shipping companies.
On Tuesday, the HOCC announced it was imposing “sanctions” on 13 U.S. oil companies, plus nine of their executives and two specific vessels. The “sanctions” were supposedly in response to the companies violating a Houthi decree against U.S. exports of crude oil.
The two ships named by the Houthis were crude oil tankers called Seaways San Saba and Seaways Brazos. Both are linked to a U.S.-based company called Diamond S Shipping Inc. According to maritime trackers, both ships are currently sailing to South America. The Houthis did not explain why they were targeted.
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