On Oct. 25, the United States Department of Treasury and all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states imposed sanctions on eight individuals and one business suspected of financing, facilitating and arming al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Islamic State (IS) in Yemen. These sanctions are the first ones imposed by the joint US-Saudi Arabia-chaired Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) — announced during Donald Trump’s visit to Riyadh for the Arab Islamic American summit in May — of which the five smaller GCC states are also parties.

The TFTC’s purpose is to enhance Washington and the Persian Gulf monarchies’ coordination in the disruption of terrorist financing, which the Trump administration has stressed is essential to defeat violent extremists. While speaking at an investment conference in Riyadh, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin applauded the GCC members for agreeing to the “largest ever multilateral designation in the Middle East.”

One of the sanctioned Yemeni individuals — Abdel-Wahab Humayqani — has a notable history. Based on allegations that Humayqani recruited and raised funds for AQAP, and coordinated an attack that killed seven at a Yemeni Republican Guard base in 2012, the US Treasury Department added him to its “Specifically Designated Global Terrorist” list in December 2013. Yet in June 2015, he represented Yemen’s exiled/Saudi-backed government at roundtable talks in Geneva. US officials voiced objections to Humayqani’s presence in Geneva, yet did not create a fuss given Washington’s vested interest in promoting the roundtable talks. Such a response was illustrative of the Obama administration’s difficult struggle to support a Saudi-led coalition — whose fight against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels led to a tacit partnership between Sunni nonstate actors, including AQAP and the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Arab coalition — while simultaneously waging military operations against al-Qaeda’s local franchise.

Although the Trump administration has not only continued backing the Saudi-led war against the Houthi rebel movements but has also increased Washington’s support for the campaign, the White House is also stepping up airstrikes on AQAP, which has exploited the civil war to gain greater influence since 2015. In fact, on Oct. 16 the US military struck IS targets in Yemen for the first time, building on months of stepped-up operations against AQAP.