The US imposed sanctions on Monday on Hamas-affiliated monetary exchanges in Gaza, an Iraqi airline and backers of Iranian-linked militias in Iraq, accusing all of them of working with Iran’s elite navy and intelligence unit.
The US Treasury mentioned it had imposed sanctions on Hamas-linked monetary networks in Gaza, notably monetary facilitators instrumental in transferring funds, together with cryptocurrency, from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Power (IRGC-QF) to Hamas, which carried out the October 7 assaults on Israel, and to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), one other Palestinian militant group.
The sanctions had been coordinated with Australia and Britain, the Treasury mentioned. Britain and Washington each focused Gaza-based cash changer Zuheir Shamlakh, whom they accused of facilitating transfers price tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from Iran to Hamas.
In sanctioning these and different targets, the U.S. authorities is making an attempt to crack down on a number of Iranian-backed proxies which have used Gaza, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen to hold out assaults on Israeli, U.S. and different pursuits.
“Sanctions are simply one of many many levers at our disposal with regards to holding Iran and a few of its proxies accountable,” State Division deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel informed a information briefing.
The strikes would have “tangible impacts” on teams Washington blames for destabilizing the Center East, Patel mentioned. For instance, he mentioned, the U.S. hoped blacklisting Iraq’s Fly Baghdad airline and its chief govt would “disrupt” the airline’s alleged function in carrying provides and personnel into Syria for the Quds Power.
Fly Baghdad denounced the sanctions, saying they had been “not primarily based on any materials or ethical proof.”
“It’s clear that the choice was primarily based on deceptive and unreal data that can’t stand as much as the legislation,” the airline mentioned in a press release.
The Treasury additionally sanctioned three leaders and supporters of Kataeb Hezbollah, one of many Quds Power’s most important Iran-linked militias in Iraq.
As a basic rule, US people or corporations are banned from transactions involving the property of these designated. Those that perform sure transactions with sanctioned entities threat being sanctioned themselves or going through different “enforcement motion,” the Treasury mentioned.
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