Yemen's Houthis slap sanctions on US oil giants

Yemen’s Houthi movement has taken a bold step by declaring that US energy giants like ExxonMobil and Chevron will be under their “sanctions,” marking a significant turning point from the previous truce with Washington, as reported by Reuters on October 1st.

The Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center (HOCC), the body that links Houthi forces with commercial shipping operators revealed that it had “sanctioned” 13 US companies, nine executives, and two vessels.

Observers in the region see this as a risky manoeuvre, Mohammed Albasha, an independent analyst, noted that it is “unclear whether these sanctions signal that the Houthis will begin targeting vessels linked to the sanctioned organisations.” He added that any strike would risk breaking the ceasefire agreement brokered with the Trump administration.

Since 2023, Houthi forces have repeatedly attacked commercial vessels in the Red Sea, with the Iran-linked group citing solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, as their reasoning for such attacks. While those actions rattled maritime security, they have not substantially hindered crucial oil transit through the Strait of Hormuz. According to the US Energy Information Administration, much of that traffic has continued unabated.

This escalation comes at a moment when the United States has grown less dependent on Gulf crude. In 2024, the US imported roughly 500,000 barrels per day via the Strait of Hormuz, about 7% of its total crude oil imports, the lowest level in almost four decades. Rising domestic production and a shift towards Canadian supply have contributed to this decline.

From the perspective of Yemen’s Houthi’s, these sanctions are simply retaliatory. In essence they are in response to heavy US imposed economic sanctions and they could be seen to constitute a wider response to regional overreach by the United States and its regional allies, such as the violent assassination of Yemen’s Houthi prime minister, Ahmed al-Rahawi, by an Israeli airstrike.

While most governments turn a blind eye to Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, shielding and supporting a regime that is committing genocide, the Houthis are among the few forces actively resisting those who are economically and militarily enabling the Israeli regime.

The fact that they are branded as “terrorists” while Zionist aggression is given impunity reflects not only the hypocrisy of the global order but also the extent to which Palestine’s struggle has been criminalised to protect the interests of the United States and its interests in the strait of Hormuz.