The Biden administration on Wednesday issued new sanctions targeting the financial networks of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia group Hezbollah, amid growing tension between Washington and Tehran.
The Treasury Department sanctioned one individual and three entities that it said provide critical financial support to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force. The sanctions also targeted the financial network of Hezbollah, which has clashed with Israel along the Lebanon-Israel border since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza last year.
Both groups are designated by the United States as foreign terrorist organizations.
“Today’s action underscores our resolve to prevent the IRGC-QF and its proxy terrorist groups from exploiting the international trading system to fund their destabilizing activities,” Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson said in a statement.
“The United States will continue to take action to expose and disrupt these illicit schemes,” Nelson said.
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The move comes as tensions increased between the U.S. and Iran following a drone attack in Jordan last week that killed three American service members and wounded several dozen others.
President Joe Biden initially blamed the attack on “radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq.” He also promised to retaliate, saying that the U.S. “shall respond” to the attack.
On Wednesday, Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Hossein Salami said Tehran would respond to any threats from the U.S.
“We hear threats coming from American officials, we tell them that they have already tested us and we now know one another, no threat will be left unanswered,” Salami said, according to the Iranian-backed Tasnim news agency.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a Newsweek request for comment.
U.S. forces in the region have been repeatedly attacked since Hamas killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel in its Oct. 7 attack and Israel responded with a military campaign in the Gaza Strip aimed at destroying Hamas.
Violence across the region since the start of the Israel-Hamas war has led to fears that the fighting in Gaza could lead to a broader regional war.
The sanctions announced Wednesday target Mira Ihracat Ithalat Petrol, a firm based in Turkey that sells Iranian goods, and its CEO and owner Ibrahim Talal al-Uwayr.
The agency also sanctioned Yara Offshore SAL, a Lebanese-based company that sells Iranian commodities to Syria, and a separate Lebanese company, Hydro Company for Drilling Equipment Rental, that the administration said helps finance Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.