The State Department on Wednesday branded a key Hamas leader as a terrorist, imposing sanctions against him and three terrorist groups.
The government designated Ismail Haniyeh, who was elected to lead the terrorist group’s political bureau in May, as a specially designated global terrorist. It also identified the Palestinian organization Harakat al Sabireen as a terrorist group, along with two Egyptian-based groups: Liwa al-Thawra, and Harakat Sawa’d Misr.
The move will bar Haniyeh and the three groups from working with U.S. banks or individual Americans, and freezes any of their assets held in the U.S.
“These designations target key terrorist groups and leaders – including two sponsored and directed by Iran – who are threatening the stability of the Middle East, undermining the peace process, and attacking our allies Egypt and Israel,” Tillerson said in a Wednesday statement. “Today’s actions are an important step in denying them the resources they need to plan and carry out their terrorist activities.”
The designations of Haniyeh and Harakat al Sabireen are particularly notable, as the State Department identified the Palestinian terrorists as a manifestation Iran’s aggression in the region.
“Iran remains the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” U.S. Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counterterrorism Nathan Sales said in Israel Wednesday. “It continues to support a rogues gallery of terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestine Islamic Jihad, and others. Here are some numbers. Iran gives Hezbollah about $700 million a year. As for Palestinian terrorist groups, it gives them potentially up to $100 million annually.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is particularly worried about the growing threat of rocket attacks from Hezbollah, in Lebanon, as well as Iranian entrenchment in Syria. But Sales acknowledged that a similar threat is brewing in Gaza, where Hamas has “reportedly developed a new short-range rocket with a far larger explosive payload” than the rockets previously fired into Israel.
He described Harakat al Sabireen as “an Iranian backed terrorist group” founded in 2014 that has already staged multiple rocket attacks against Israel.
“Our new approach marks a dramatic break from the past,” Sales said. “We’re no longer downplaying the threat of Iran-backed militancy. Nor are we so focused on Iran’s nuclear program that we’re willing to overlook the regime’s many other malign activities.”
The speech may be a diplomatic maneuver designed to facilitate cooperation between Israel and Arab nations allied with the United States. Saudi Arabia, especially, shares Israel’s view of Iran as a major regional threat.
But Arab leaders historically have sided with the Palestinians against the Israelis, citing that standoff as an impediment to diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. That posture was most recently on display when President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital drew widespread rebuke at the United Nations General Assembly.
“Countering Iran and its terrorist partners is a top priority for the Trump Administration,” Sales emphasized. “The Trump administration is addressing the totality of the threat Iran poses, and applying pressure to bring about a change in Tehran’s behavior.”
