US Imposes Fresh Sanctions On Hamas, Members Of Iran’s IRGC

Iran International Newsroom
A Palestinian fighter from the armed wing of Hamas takes part in a military parade to mark the anniversary of the 2014 war with Israel, near the border in the central Gaza Strip, July 19, 2023.
A Palestinian fighter from the armed wing of Hamas takes part in a military parade to mark the anniversary of the 2014 war with Israel, near the border in the central Gaza Strip, July 19, 2023.

The US on Friday issued a second round of sanctions aimed at Palestinian militant group Hamas, including a Hamas official in Iran and members of Iran's IRGC.

The measures target additional assets in a Hamas investment portfolio and people facilitating sanctions evasion by Hamas-affiliated companies, the US Treasury Department said in a statement.

A Gaza-based entity that Treasury said has served as a conduit for illicit Iranian funds to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group was also targeted, the department said. Iran backs Hamas and other militant groups in the Middle East.

"We will not hesitate to take action to further degrade Hamas’s ability to commit horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly targeting its financial activities and streams of funding," Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo wrote, adding the sanctions aimed "to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system."

Hamas's representative in Tehran Khaled Qaddoumi is among the ones added to the sanctions list.
Hamas's representative in Tehran Khaled Qaddoumi is among the ones added to the sanctions list.

Adeyemo said some firms in the digital asset space were not doing enough to stop the flow of illicit finance.

Israel has bombed Hamas targets in the densely populated Gaza Strip following the October 7 terror attack that killed 1,400 people. Hamas took more than 200 hostages, some of them infants, in the assault.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said on Thursday that 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in Israel's retaliatory air strikes. The figure cannot be independently verified.

Friday's action freezes any US 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 with sanctions.

The Treasury said it imposed sanctions on a Jordanian national who lives in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and who it said serves as the representative of Hamas in Iran, as well as Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force (IRGC-QF) officials who train and assist members of Hamas and other militant groups.

An Iran-based commander of the Saberin Special Forces Brigade of the IRGC Ground Force was also targeted. The US Treasury said the Saberin Brigade has deployed to Syria and has provided training to Hamas and members of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

Hundreds of Iranian or Iran-linked individuals and companies are already under US sanctions for their illicit activities in the country’s nuclear, missile and terror-related activities.

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 the Hamas investment portfolio.

The United States has said that the Hamas portfolio 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.

The US military on Thursday carried out strikes against two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Revolutionary Guards and groups it backs following a spate of attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.

However, Iranian and Iraqi media reported on Friday that two US bases came under attack in Syria and Iraq following the US retaliatory strike.

With reporting by Reuters