The United States announced this Friday a second round of economic sanctions against Hamas officials, but also against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, as well as against its financial networks, three weeks after the start of the war between the Palestinian Islamist movement and Israel. These sanctions target “additional assets in Hamas’s investment portfolio and individuals who facilitate sanctions evasion by Hamas-affiliated companies,” the US Treasury Department said in a statement.
Washington specifies that it also imposed sanctions against “a Hamas official in Iran and members of the Revolutionary Guard”, the ideological army of the Iranian regime.
The sanctions also target “a Gaza-based entity that served as a conduit for illicit Iranian funds to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.” This action “underscores the United States’ commitment to dismantling Hamas’ financial networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deprive Hamas of the ability to exploit the international financial system,” said the undersecretary. of the Treasury, Wally Adeyemo. , cited in the press release.
“Financial network”
“We will not hesitate to take measures to further degrade Hamas’s ability to carry out horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly attacking its financial activities and funding flows,” he added. Wally Adeyemo, who began a trip to Europe from Friday to Wednesday, told AFP on Tuesday that he wanted to create an “international coalition” to attack the “Hamas financial network.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed that these sanctions target “eight key figures for their support of Hamas,” as well as “Iranian Revolutionary Guard officials involved in financing and training Hamas.” “Several individuals and entities designated today played a key role in facilitating the evasion of sanctions by companies affiliated with Hamas,” added Joe Biden’s minister.
The United States had already imposed, on October 18, sanctions against 10 “key members of Hamas”, agents and people involved in financing the activities of the Palestinian Islamist group.
Source: BFM TV
