The United States announced on Friday a second round of economic sanctions targeting Hamas officials, but also the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, as well as their financial networks, three weeks after the start of the war between the Palestinian Islamist movement and Israel.
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These sanctions target “additional assets in the Hamas investment portfolio and individuals who facilitate sanctions evasion by Hamas-affiliated companies,” the US Treasury Department said in a statement.
Washington specifies that it has also imposed sanctions against “a Hamas official in Iran and members of the Revolutionary Guards”, the ideological army of the Iranian regime.
The sanctions further 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’ financing 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,” he said. said Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, quoted in the press release.
“We will not hesitate to take steps to further degrade Hamas’ ability to carry out horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly targeting its financial activities and funding streams,” he added.
Wally Adeyemo, who began a trip to Europe on Friday until Wednesday, told AFP on Tuesday that he wanted to set up an “international coalition” to attack the “Hamas financial network”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed that these sanctions targeted “eight key figures for their support of Hamas”, as well as “officials of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards involved in the financing and training of Hamas”.
“A number of 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, on October 18, imposed sanctions against 10 “key members of Hamas”, agents and people participating in financing the activities of the Palestinian Islamist group.