WASHINGTON, Jan 22 (Reuters) – The United States 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 working with Iran‘s elite navy and intelligence unit.
The U.S. Treasury stated it had imposed sanctions on Hamas-linked monetary networks in Gaza, significantly monetary facilitators instrumental in transferring funds, together with cryptocurrency, from Iran‘s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF) to Hamas, which carried out the Oct. 7 assaults on Israel, and to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), one other Palestinian militant group.
New Crypto Front Emerges in Israel’s Financing Fight Against Iran-Funded Militia Groups
EXCLUSIVE – Crypto Exchange Binance Helped Iranian Firms Trade $8 Billion Despite Sanctions
The sanctions have been coordinated with Australia and Britain, the Treasury stated. Britain and Washington each focused Gaza-based cash changer Zuheir Shamlakh, whom they accused of facilitating transfers price tens of tens of millions of {dollars} from Iran to Hamas.
Generals Among Iran Guards Killed in Israeli Strike on Damascus
In sanctioning these and different targets, the U.S. authorities is attempting 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 relating to holding Iran and a few of its proxies accountable,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel advised a information briefing.
The strikes would have “tangible impacts” on teams Washington blames for destabilizing the Middle East, Patel stated. For instance, he stated, the U.S. hoped blacklisting Iraq’s Fly Baghdad airline and its chief government would “disrupt” the airline’s alleged position in carrying provides and personnel into Syria for the Quds Force.
Fly Baghdad denounced the sanctions, saying they have been “not primarily based on any materials or ethical proof.”
“It is evident that the choice was primarily based on deceptive and unreal info that can’t stand as much as the legislation,” the airline stated in a press release.
The Treasury additionally sanctioned three leaders and supporters of Kataeb Hezbollah, one of many Quds Force’s predominant Iran-linked militias in Iraq.
As a basic rule, U.S. people or corporations are banned from transactions involving the property of these designated. Those who perform sure transactions with sanctioned entities danger being sanctioned themselves or dealing with different “enforcement motion,” the Treasury stated.