Tehran sanctions US ambassador to Yemen in tit-for-tat move after Washington blacklisted Iranian envoy to Houthis

Iran has announced sanctions against the US ambassador to Yemen, Christopher Henzel, in retaliation for Washington imposing similar penalties on Iran's envoy to the country's Houthi rebels a day earlier.

The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced its move on Wednesday, accusing Henzel of playing a "pivotal role" in Yemen's humanitarian crisis, according to a statement carried by local media.

The ministry also accused Henzel of helping propagate the Yemeni civil war, arming and bankrolling the Saudi-led coalition, and of frustrating Yemen's political process towards conflict resolution.

The US ambassador's inclusion on the Iranian sanctions list comes after the Trump administration hit Tehran's envoy to Yemen, Hasan Irlu, with similar action on Tuesday over his alleged reluctance to end the country's five-year conflict. 

A US Treasury statement claimed that Irlu was high up in the Quds Force, the Iranian military's foreign branch, and that he had links to its former chief Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike earlier this year.

Iran was the first country to recognize the Houthi rebels' rule in Yemen, where they have been fighting the Saudi-led military coalition since 2015. The United Nations has been trying to re-establish peace talks between the two sides since 2018. 

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