US puts sanctions on Hamas-linked financial networks, others

The United States imposed sanctions on Monday on Hamas-affiliated financial exchanges in Gaza, an Iraqi airline and backers of Iranian-linked militias in Iraq, accusing all of working with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF), an elite Iranian military and intelligence unit. The U.S. Treasury said it had imposed sanctions on Hamas-affiliated financial networks in Gaza and particularly financial facilitators that have played key roles in transferring funds, including cryptocurrency, from the Quds Force to Hamas, which carried out the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, and to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), another Palestinian militant group.

The United States imposed sanctions on Monday on Hamas-affiliated financial exchanges in Gaza, an Iraqi airline and backers of Iranian-linked militias in Iraq, accusing all of working with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF), an elite Iranian military and intelligence unit.

The U.S. Treasury said it had imposed sanctions on Hamas-affiliated financial networks in Gaza and particularly financial facilitators that have played key roles in transferring funds, including cryptocurrency, from the Quds Force to Hamas, which carried out the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, and to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), another Palestinian militant group. In sanctioning these and other targets, the U.S. government is trying to crack down on a host of Iranian-backed proxies that have carried out attacks on Israeli, U.S. and other interests from Gaza, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.

Among others, the Treasury said it put sanctions on Iraq's Fly Baghdad airline and its chief executive for aiding the Quds Force and its proxy groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. It also sanctioned three leaders and supporters of Kataeb Hezbollah, one of the Quds Force's main Iran-linked militias in Iraq. Fly Baghdad denounced the sanctions, saying they are "not based on any material or moral evidence."

"It is clear that the decision was based on misleading and unreal information that cannot stand up to the law," Fly Baghdad said in a statement. The U.S. Treasury alleged the airlines facilitated the transport of money, weapons and fighters belonging to pro-Iranian militias in Iraq.

As a result of the steps, taken in concert with actions by Britain and Australia, all U.S. assets of those designated are blocked. As a general rule, U.S. regulations bar transactions by U.S. individuals or companies involving the property of those designated. Others who carry out certain transactions with sanctioned entities risk being sanctioned themselves or suffering other "enforcement action," the Treasury said.