US Sanctions Houthi Military Leaders as Peace Efforts Stall
Voice of America
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - The United States is imposing sanctions on two Houthi military officials leading the Iran-aligned movement's offensive to seize Yemen's gas-rich Marib region, the U.S. Special Envoy on Yemen said Thursday.
Tim Lenderking urged the group battling a Saudi-led coalition for more than six years to de-escalate and engage seriously with U.S. and U.N. efforts for a cease-fire needed to end the war, a top foreign policy priority for the Biden administration. He also urged the Saudi-led military alliance to remove restrictions on all Yemeni ports and airports to ease what the United Nations says is the world's largest humanitarian crisis. "The Houthis are not winning in Marib. Instead they are putting a great deal of stress on an already very fragile humanitarian situation, they are putting the lives of 1 million internally displaced people ... in danger," Lenderking said.Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, right, and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, left, leave a podium after marking Independence Day in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 26, 2024. Demonstrators with Georgian national and EU flags rally during an opposition protest against a foreign influence bill as they mark their country's Independence Day, in the center of in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 26, 2024.