The United States slaps sanctions on a global network backing Iran’s Kataib Hezbollah and Lebanese Hezbollah, striking at the heart of Tehran’s proxy financing. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced Thursday that companies and individuals in Iraq, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey are now blacklisted for providing financial, logistical and procurement support.
Both Kataib Hezbollah and Lebanese Hezbollah are officially designated terrorist organizations under U.S. law. Kataib Hezbollah, the most influential faction within Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, receives more than $2.6 billion annually in government funding and diverts those resources to fund its own terrorist activities.
OFAC named four Kataib Hezbollah operatives, a senior Popular Mobilization Commission official, an UAE‑based Iraqi businessman and his company, and Abbas Jawad Kadhim Al‑Tameemi, a senior PMC official accused of facilitating military procurement for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. A procurement firm and its representative were also sanctioned for alleged assistance in acquiring defense‑related equipment for the PMF and Iran‑linked networks.
Financial Channels Targeted
The Treasury added that money exchangers, financial facilitators, gold traders and currency‑exchange businesses that move funds from Iran to Lebanese Hezbollah are now sanctioned. Two Iraqi businessmen and a Dubai‑based firm were targeted for alleged transfers of money from Iraq to Iran, while a separate case resulted in a $1.43 million civil settlement with an individual who provided consulting to an Iranian software firm and breached sanctions.
Earlier this week, OFAC expanded the crackdown by designating 27 Iranian airlines and eight foreign firms in Turkey, the UAE, Malaysia, Kazakhstan and the UK for aiding Iran’s aviation sector despite sanctions. The actions are part of “Operation Economic Outcast,” the Trump administration’s effort to isolate Iran economically and pressure its regional allies.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that anyone financing terror, laundering money or helping Iran evade sanctions will be cut off from the U.S. financial system. “We will find them, dismantle the networks keeping the regime afloat,” he said.
Sanctions Implications
The measures block property and interests belonging to designated persons and entities, prohibit U.S. persons from transacting with them without OFAC authorization, and threaten secondary sanctions on foreign banks that knowingly handle significant sanctioned transactions. The Treasury urged the public to report suspected violations through its whistleblower program.
