The United States and six Gulf countries agreed to jointly impose sanctions on 25 corporations, banks and individuals linked to Iran’s support for militant networks including Hezbollah, the US Treasury Department said on Wednesday.
A statement by the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center said that 21 of these targets comprised a vast network of businesses providing financial support to the Basij Resistance Force (Basij).
The list included prominent names, including Jawad Nasrallah, son of Hezbollah’s Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah, as well as three other individuals associated with Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. The sanctioned entities included Mehr-e Eqtesad Bank, the Iran-based network Bonyad Taavon Basij, Milla Bank, and Mehr Investment Company.
US President Donald Trump said that these unprecedented sanctions came to reinforce the fact that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is heavily involved in financing and encouraging terrorism as a tool of rule.
In July, the United States and more than 30 other members of the Financial Action Task Force agreed to tighten oversight on Iranian financial institutions in response to Tehran’s continued financing of terrorism.
The Syrian National Coalition earlier said that any step towards weakening Iran’s influence in Syria is in the interest of the Syrian revolution. It said that the goal of the Iranian militias and military bases in Syria is to help the Assad regime suppress the Syrian people. (Source: Syrian National Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)