US, Gulf allies sanction Hezbollah-Iran network

WASHINGTON — The United States and six Gulf allies announce sanctions on 25 entities associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, in a move to tighten controls on both groups’ finances.

The sanctions are set by Riyadh-based Terrorist Financing Targeting Center, a two-year-old group that includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in addition to the United States.

They target companies supporting the Basij Resistance Force, a subordinate group of the Revolutionary Guard, that the US Treasury says are used “to oppress domestic opposition with brutal displays of violence” and supply fighters to regional conflicts.

Among the 25 is Iranian Bank Mellat and mining, manufacturing and investment firms that allegedly support the Basij.

Four of those listed are individuals running Hezbollah’s operations in Iraq, the Treasury says.

All 25 have previously been named in US Treasury sanctions announced in 2018.

“The TFTC’s coordinated disruption of the financial networks used by the Iranian regime to fund terrorism is a powerful demonstration of Gulf unity,” says US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement. “This action demonstrates the unified position of the Gulf nations and the United States that Iran will not be allowed to escalate its malign activity in the region,” says Mnuchin, addressing a business forum in Riyadh today.

— AFP