On Sunday, the Restoration Initiative welcomed the US Treasury’s decision to impose sanctions on members of a smuggling network that helps finance the Quds Force of the Houthi Revolutionary Guards in Yemen, led by Houthi financier Saeed Al-Jamal, who resides in Iran and is linked to a number of Yemeni elements.
In a statement, the “Restore Initiative”, which is concerned with tracking the activities of looted funds and property of the Houthi coup, also welcomed the inclusion of the “Sweed and Sons Exchange Company” on the sanctions list, a company used by the Houthis to smuggle and launder money with the aim of supporting terrorist operations through the Saeed Muhammad Ahmad Al-Jamal network. .
According to the statement, according to information specific to the initiative, Al-Jamal, who belongs to Sanaa governorate, Hamedan region, and travels between Yemen, Iran and Lebanon, has settled in Iran to establish a financial network under the supervision of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards with the aim of supporting the Houthis by providing them with oil derivatives and commercial goods.
Al-Jamal also handled the movement of Houthi funds in different countries. Information indicates that the camel is 42 years old and has been in Iran since 2009.
In its statement, the “Restore Initiative” considered the step taken by the United States of America to impose restrictions on people and companies working to support the Houthis and circumvent international resolutions, including UN Resolution 2216, in addition to working to smuggle money and deliver it to the Houthis in order to finance their terrorist operations against the people of Yemen. “An important step that may tighten the screws a little on the financial resources of the Houthis.”
She added that “the sanctions against the Sweid company are important because it is one of the most important sources of transferring and moving the funds of the Houthi leaders, as well as the looted funds, as well as the transfer of funds from Iran to the Houthis, especially the oil money that is supervised and controlled by the Houthi spokesman, Muhammad Abdul Salam, and a number of Houthi leaders.”
The initiative pointed to what it revealed in its previous reports that the Houthi group relies on money exchange companies and complex remittances for its financing, most notably, according to the US Treasury, the “Sweed Exchange Company”, which was working to establish a commercial banking bank for the Houthi group in partnership with Muhammad Abd al-Salam and leaders of the party The Lebanese God, Iranian and Iraqi figures and other pro-Iran merchants.
And it called for imposing additional restrictions on Yemeni, Iranian and Lebanese businessmen and commercial companies linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the Houthis, working to smuggle drugs, weapons and money laundering, especially looted from Yemeni citizens’ money and companies confiscated by the Houthi terrorist group, which would stop Houthi resources that he uses to finance his military operations. In order to prolong the war in Yemen.
The initiative revealed that the Houthi militia has established more than 910 exchange companies in several governorates it controls. She explained that these companies are working to launder Houthi money from illegal trade, weapons and drugs. It pledged to publish a list of those companies in a new report to be issued later.
The “Restoration Initiative” called for additional measures to be taken to prevent the Houthis’ financial transactions and smuggling of oil and weapons, practices that encourage them to prolong the war in Yemen and reject initiatives aimed at bringing peace.
She stressed the need to establish an international committee to work on inventorying these violations, recover the money looted by the Houthis, return the companies to their owners, and monitor their work and correspondence with foreign companies.
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