Middle East
Flags of Yemen's Ansarullah Movement - Houthis - (left), Iraq (upper middle) and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement (right). Graphic: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s Committee for Freezing Terrorist Assets has frozen “all movable, immovable, and economic resources” belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement and Yemen’s Ansarullah movement (Houthis), citing their "participation in a terrorist attack."
In the issue of the Official Gazette of Iraq, al-Waqai’ al-Iraqiya, numbered 4848 and published on November 17, it was reported that the Committee - an affiliate of the Secretariat General of the Iraqi Council of Ministers - on October 12, by consensus and pursuant to Iraq’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Law (No. 39 of 2015) and the provisions of the Terrorists' Assets Freezing Regulations (No. 6 of 2023), decided to “freeze the movable and immovable assets and economic resources” belonging to a list of entities.
Rows 18 and 19 of the attached list feature the Lebanese Hezbollah Movement and Yemen’s Ansarullah Movement - widely known as the Houthis - citing the two groups' "participation in committing a terrorist act" as rationale for the decision.
The revision
In a seeming implicit backtrack, the Committee issued a “clarification statement” on Thursday referring to “the freezing of funds and assets of a list of entities and individuals associated with the terrorist organizations [the Islamic State] ISIS and al-Qaeda.”
It acknowledged that “this list included a number of parties and entities that have no terrorist activities or links with the aforementioned organizations” - ostensibly an indirect reference to Hezbollah and Ansarullah.
It stressed that “the Iraqi side’s approval was limited exclusively to including entities and individuals associated with ISIS and al-Qaeda,” explaining that “the inclusion of the other entities resulted from the list being published before revision.”
The Committee concluded that “the information published in the Iraqi Gazette will be corrected by removing those parties and entities from the list of groups associated with the terrorist organizations ISIS and al-Qaeda.”
Hezbollah
The Iran-backed Hezbollah movement emerged in 1982 amid the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the subsequent occupation of the country’s southern territories. Formed from several Shiite armed factions active during the Lebanese Civil War (1975 - 1990), the group was reportedly trained by members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The group’s late secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah (1960-2024) openly acknowledged in a 2016 speech and for the first time that “the budget of Hezbollah, its salaries, expenses, food, drink, weapons and its missiles come from the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Hezbollah entered Lebanon’s political arena in 1992, running in local and legislative elections and capitalizing on grievances among the Shiite community, which had long felt marginalized by the country’s political elites. Over time, the group built an extensive network of social services for its members, supporters and their families. In 2005, Hezbollah began participating in Lebanese governments and acquiring ministerial portfolios.
Regionally, Hezbollah evolved into a central pillar of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” transforming from a Lebanon-focused paramilitary force into a model exported to aligned movements across the Middle East.
In Iraq, the group intensified the training of Iran-aligned armed groups, focusing on advanced military tactics and guerrilla warfare. It also provided strategic guidance for operations targeting US assets and deepened its ties with Iraqi factions that hold political power.
In October 2023, Hezbollah opened what it called a “support front” against Israel, aiming to relieve pressure on Hamas - its “Axis of Resistance” ally - amid the war in Gaza. The conflict with Israel escalated sharply after mid-September 2024, when Israel carried out the “Pagers Operation,” remotely detonating communication devices used by Hezbollah members, followed shortly thereafter by an airstrike in Beirut that killed Nasrallah.
The group has for decades faced much criticism, often described as a “state within a state,” which has presence in parliament and government, independent military and social-service structures and an active regional military role.
Ansarullah
Meanwhile, the Ansarullah movement - also a key component of the Iran-led “Axis of Resistance” and widely known as the Houthis after its founding family - is a clan-based political and military organization that has modeled itself on Lebanon’s Hezbollah since the 1980s.
Ansarullah originated in Yemen’s northern Saada governorate in the 1990s as the “Believing Youth” movement, which sought to promote a Zaydi Shiite revival and resist what it saw as growing Saudi and US influence.
The group’s first leader, Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi, was killed by Yemeni government forces in September 2004, sparking the first of six rounds of fighting known as the Saada Wars (2004–2010). Leadership then passed to his brother and current head of the movement, Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi.
During Yemen’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising, the group formally adopted the name Ansarullah Movement and in late 2014, Houthi forces seized control of the capital, Sanaa, following mass protests over fuel-subsidy cuts and widespread anger over state corruption. This takeover was widely regarded as a coup against the internationally recognized government of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.
In early 2015, Ansarullah dissolved parliament and announced a constitutional declaration, establishing a Supreme Revolutionary Committee to govern the country. This move consolidated their de facto control over state institutions in northern Yemen, an area that encompasses roughly 70 percent of Yemen’s population.
Following the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas conflict in October 2023, Ansarullah launched a campaign in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, repeatedly targeting commercial vessels that were Israeli-owned or bound for Israel, in addition to firing drones and missiles toward Israeli territory.
Like Hezbollah, the Houthis framed their attacks as acts of solidarity with Palestinians and as pressure on Israel to halt its military operations in Gaza. The group’s leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, in December 2023 stated, “We stress our absolute and continuous commitment to continue targeting Israeli ships or ships heading to the ports of occupied Palestine until the aggression stops and the siege on Gaza is lifted.”
In response to these actions, and following US and UK retaliatory strikes on Houthi military sites in Yemen, the US State Department designated Ansarullah a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity.
Updated at 2:45 pm
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment