U.S. slaps sanctions on former Yemeni president, Houthi commanders

The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on Yemen's former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and two military commanders of the Shiite Houthi group for threatening peace and stability of the Arab country still under a political transition.

The Department of Treasury targeted Saleh, Abdullah Yahya al- Hakim and Abd al-Khaliq al-Huthi for using "violence and other means" to threaten the "peace, security or stability" of Yemen.

The move came after the UN Security Council put them on its sanctions list on Friday under Resolution 2140.

"As of fall 2012, Saleh had reportedly become one of the primary supporters of violence perpetrated by individuals affiliated with the Houthi group," the Treasury said in a statement.

"More recently, as of September 2014, Saleh reportedly has been destabilizing Yemen by using others to undermine the central government and create enough instability to threaten a coup," the agency said.

The ruling General People's Congress, led by Saleh, and the Houthi group, which overran the capital city of Sanaa in September, rejected a power-sharing deal that saw the swearing-in of a new government in Yemen on Sunday.

Saleh, Yemen's president since May 1990, ceded power in November 2011 under a deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council that ended 11-month mass protests across the country.

According to the Treasury, al-Hakim was implicated in plotting a coup against Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in June 2014, and he remained in Sanaa in early September to "organize military operations so as to be able to topple the Yemeni government" in case of failure to secure a peace deal.

Al-Huthi was behind attacks on government facilities and prepared to attack diplomatic facilities in Sanaa in late September, the agency said.

Under the sanctions, the trio's assets under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen and Americans are barred from doing business with them. Enditem