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U.S. Treasury Sanctions UAE-Based Fuel Traders Who Supply Houthi Ports

Ras Isa
Ras Isa seaport, the largest Houthi-controlled petroleum terminal, after a U.S. strike earlier this year (Al Masirah)

Published Jul 22, 2025 6:43 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

The U.S. Treasury is continuing its crackdown on the petroleum-shipping networks that support Yemen's Houthi rebels. The group has long profited from its oil-marketing agreements with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but it also earns hundreds of millions of dollars a year in taxes on imported gas and diesel. Treasury's latest action aims to cut off that flow of revenue by targeting a business network with links to the Houthis in both Yemen and the UAE. 

In a statement, the Treasury said that it has sanctioned Yemeni fuel importer Muhammad Al-Sunaydar, manager of UAE-based Arkan Mars Petroleum Company DMCC and Arkan Mars Petroleum FZE. This corporate group has an arrangement with the Houthis to allow importation of oil and gas into northwestern Yemen - including at least $12 million worth of fuel from Iran, Treasury alleged. The department said that Iranian-linked companies have moved payments between Arkan Mars and the Iranian government, an act prohibited by U.S. sanctions on the Iranian nuclear program. 

Arkan Mars and other importers have primarily moved their fuel shipments through the ports of Ras Isa and Hodeidah. Petroleum terminals at both of these ports were badly damaged in U.S. and Israeli attacks earlier this year. 

“These networks of shady businesses underpin the Houthis’ terrorist machine, and Treasury will use all tools at its disposal to disrupt these schemes," said Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender in a statement. “The Houthis collaborate with opportunistic businessmen to reap enormous profits from the importation of petroleum products."

The sanctions announcement is the latest in several days affecting trading houses in the UAE. 

On Monday, the government of the UK sanctioned Dubai-based Litasco Middle East DMCC (known as LME Trading DMCC), a company linked to number-two Russian oil exporter Lukoil. Litasco Middle East was by far the biggest buyer of Russian oil priced above the G7 price cap last year, according to investigative reporting outlet The Insider. LME Trading DMCC is listed as an anchor tenant in one of Dubai's most glamorous luxury office tower developments, Uptown Dubai. 

According to the Treasury, Arkan Mars is located in another luxury tower just 400 yards away from Uptown Dubai, the Dome Tower in the Jumeirah Lakes development. Both are within a growing free trade zone that is home to 25,000 international companies.