Washington: TheUSonFriday issued a second round ofsanctionsaimed at Palestinian militant groupHamasfollowing its attack this monthonIsrael, including aHamasofficial inIranandmembersofIran’s IslamicRevolutionaryGuardCorps.
The measures target additional assets in aHamasinvestment portfolio and people facilitatingsanctionsevasion byHamas-affiliated companies, theUS Treasury Department said in a statement.
A Gaza-based entity that Treasury said has served as a conduit for illicit Iranian funds toHamasand the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group was also targeted, the department said.IranbacksHamasand other militant groups in the Middle East.
“We will not hesitate to take action to further degradeHamas’s ability to commit horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly targeting its financial activities and streams of funding,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo wrote, adding thesanctionsaimed “to denyHamasthe ability to exploit the international financial system.”
Adeyemo said some firms in the digital asset space were not doing enough to stop the flow of illicit finance.
Israel has bombarded the densely populated Gaza Strip following the October 7 attack byHamasthat Israel says killed some 1,400 people. The group took more than 200 hostages, some of them infants, in the assault.
TheHamas-controlled Gaza health ministry saidonThursday that 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in Israel’s retaliatory air strikes.
Reuters could not independently verify the tolls.
Friday’s action freezes anyUS assets of the targeted groups and generally bars Americans from dealing with them. Those that engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit withsanctions.
The Treasury said it imposedsanctionsona Jordanian national who lives in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and who it said serves as the representative ofHamasinIran, as well as IslamicRevolutionaryGuardCorps Qods Force (IRGC-QF) officials who train and assistmembersofHamasand other militant groups.
AnIran-based commander of the Saberin Special Forces Brigade of the IRGC Ground Force was also targeted. TheUS Treasury said the Saberin Brigade has deployed to Syria and has provided training to Hamas and members of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
Sudan and Spain-based companies were also targeted under Friday’s measures, as were Turkey-based shareholders of a company previously designated as part of theHamasinvestment portfolio.
The United States has said that theHamasportfolio of investments, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, includes companies operating in Turkey, as well as Sudan, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere.
This month’s violence has led to fears of a broader conflict in the Middle East.
TheUS militaryonThursday carried out strikes against two facilities in eastern Syria used byIran’sRevolutionaryGuardsand groups it backs following a spate of attacks againstUS forces in Iraq and Syria.
(Published 27 October 2023, 12:51 IST)