ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The US Treasury on Thursday imposed sanctions on entities and individuals supporting the Iran-backed armed group Kata'ib Hezbollah in Iraq and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon as part of Operation Economic Outcast against Tehran.
“Operation Economic Outcast is targeting those who continue to stand with the failing Iranian regime,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Whether they finance terror, launder money, or help Iran evade sanctions, we will find them, cut them off from the U.S. financial system, and dismantle the networks keeping the regime afloat.”
The Treasury Department said in a statement that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action against “entities and individuals” that support Kata'ib Hezbollah in Iraq and Hezbollah in Lebanon, accusing both groups of "fuel[ling] Iran's destabilizing influence in the Middle East, endanger[ing] U.S. and partner forces, and facilitat[ing] extensive sanctions evasion schemes" across Iraq, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Turkey.
The Treasury described both groups as among "Iran's most dangerous proxies" and "Tehran's primary instruments for projecting violence, subversion, and global destabilization."
Kata'ib Hezbollah was described as a "leading militant faction" within the Iran-led ‘Axis of Resistance’ that receives considerable support from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) Quds Force, and "the most influential faction” within Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). The group's members also "occupy key leadership positions within the PMF's governing body, the Popular Mobilization Commission (PMC)," the Treasury added.
As for the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, the new sanctions target "front companies" and individuals who "transfer funds derived from Iranian oil sales to exchange houses in the region" between the IRGC's Quds Force and Hezbollah, which were then used to finance weapons purchases, equipment manufacturing, and member salaries.
Operation Economic Outcast was enacted in late August, following the mid-April Operation Economic Fury campaign - the financial counterpart to Operation Epic Fury, which saw the US and Israel in late February launch a joint military campaign against Iran, striking thousands of targets across the country over six weeks.
In response, Tehran and its allies from the ‘Axis of Resistance’ carried out thousands of drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting what they described as US assets - particularly in Gulf Arab states - as well as launching retaliatory attacks against Israel.
Since February, the Treasury said, Kata'ib Hezbollah and "other Iranian-aligned militia groups in Iraq have conducted hundreds of attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces in Iraq and across the region," using "explosive drones and indiscriminate rocket fire that puts the lives and livelihoods of innocent Iraqi civilians at risk and directly threatens the U.S. Embassy and U.S. diplomatic facilities."
.png&w=3840&q=75)
