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WASHINGTON: The United States said on Wednesday it was adding 15 Chinese companies to its restricted trade list for facilitating the purchase of American electronic components found in drones operated by Iranian proxies including Houthi and Hamas militants.
Ten companies in China were placed on the Commerce Department’s Entity List for facilitating the purchase of components found in weaponized unmanned aircraft systems operated by proxies including Yemen’s Houthi militants, according to a post in the Federal Register.
Five additional Chinese companies were listed after information that around October 7, 2023, Israel Defense Forces recovered numerous weaponized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operated by Iranian proxies including Hamas, the post said, and the debris showed multiple US-origin electronic components.
Hamas-led militants staged an attack in Israel that day that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, and triggered the war in Gaza.
In all, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security is adding 29 entries to the list.
Arrow China Electronics Trading in Shanghai and other Chinese cities and Arrow Electronics (Hong Kong) are among the companies being placed on the list over US components for weaponized drones operated by Iranian proxies like the Houthis.
Both companies are subsidiaries of Centennial, Colorado-based Arrow Electronics, a components distributor which says it had global 2024 sales of $28 billion.
The companies have been and are continuing to operate in compliance with export regulations and the law, according to a statement from the US-headquartered company.
“We are in discussion with BIS concerning these listings and will provide further details as soon as they become available,” Arrow spokesperson John Hourigan said in the statement. “In the meantime, we will work to minimize supply chain disruptions to our partners.”
The US also added another Chinese company to the list for being part of an illicit network that obtains and supplies UAV and other components to front companies of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force (IRGC-QF).
Companies are placed on the Commerce Department’s Entity List for activities deemed contrary to US national security and foreign policy interests. Licenses are required to export to companies on the list, and are likely to be denied. 

A United Nations staff member who was recently detained by Yemen’s Houthi authorities has been released, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday.
“We continue to urge the de facto authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all UN and humanitarian workers who are supporting the most vulnerable people in Yemen,” Dujarric said.
He did not provide information about the timing or circumstances of the detention, which comes after nine other UN personnel were detained by Houthis.
Dujarric said 53 UN staff remain detained by Houthis, adding that some have been held since 2021.
Yemen has been the focus of one of the world’s largest humanitarian operations during a decade of civil war that disrupted food supplies. WFP says it provided assistance to 15.3 million people, or 47 percent of the population, in 2023.
WFP was among the UN offices raided by Houthis in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in August. Eleven UN personnel were detained as a result of the raid.
The raid, which followed an Israeli strike on Sanaa that killed the prime minister of the Houthi-run government and several other ministers, was condemned by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who described the detentions as “intolerable.”
Houthi officials said last month that the UN personnel’s legal immunities should not shield espionage activities.
The Houthi-run foreign ministry also accused the UN of bias for condemning what they called “legal measures taken by the government against spy cells involved in crimes,” while failing to denounce the Israeli attack.