US Imposes New Sanctions on Hamas and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard
Jose Nino
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On October 27, 2023, the United States government issued a second set of sanctions on the Palestinian jihadist organization Hamas after its attack on Israel on October 7. These sanctions specifically targeted a Hamas official based in Iran and members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The US Treasury Department announced in a statement that the measures targeted additional assets in a Hamas investment portfolio and individuals facilitating sanctions evasion by companies connected to Hamas.
On top of that, an entity based in Gaza has allegedly functioned as a vehicle for illegal Iranian funds to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) organization has been targeted by the Treasury department. Iran allegedly supports Hamas, among other militant organizations across the Middle East, which has prompted neoconservative and neoliberal interventionists to always poke Iran in the eye.
“Today’s action underscores the United States’ commitment to dismantling Hamas’s funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo stated.
“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.”
These sanctions actions freeze any American assets of individuals targeted and generally prohibits Americans from doing business with them. Individuals that are involved in certain transactions with them could also be subject to sanctions.
The Treasury stated it slapped sanctions on a Jordanian national who lives in Tehran — Iran’s capital. American authorities argue that this individual is allegedly a representative of Hamas in Iran, in addition to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force (IRGC-QF) officials who train and aid members of Hamas and other militant organizations.
A commander of the Saberin Special Forces Brigade of the IRGC Ground Force was also slapped with sanctions. The US Treasury asserted that the Saberin Brigade was sent to Syria and has trained militants of Hamas and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah organization.
Sanctions will do nothing to deter countries like Iran and other US geopolitical rivals who perceive the US government’s encroachments in their respective spheres of influence as major threats. In the multipolar world, sanctions will do very little to stop US rivals from projecting influence abroad, much less topple their respective governments.
It’s high time the US retrench its foreign policy and start focusing its attention on its own domestic affairs.
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