Iran on Wednesday slapped sanctions on the US envoy to Yemen, a largely symbolic gesture that followed the Trump administration's sanctioning of the Iranian ambassador to the Houthi rebels. 

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was blacklisting the US ambassador to Yemen, Christopher Henzel, for his role "organizing, offering financial and weapons support, leading and contributing to the actions committed by the coalition attacking Yemen.”

Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen’s civil war on behalf of the internationally recognized government in 2015 and is now leading a coalition of Arab states fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels. The US military provides logistical and intelligence assistance to the Saudis and until 2018 had refueled coalition aircraft in Yemen. 

Henzel’s sanctioning follows an announcement from the US State Department on Tuesday that it had blacklisted Hasan Irlu. The department described him as a member of Iran’s elite Quds Force recently sent to the Houthi-controlled capital of Sanaa to serve as the liaison of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)  to the rebel government.