Through the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center, or TFTC, the United States and its Gulf partners collaborate to combat the financing of terrorist organizations in the Middle East and around the world. The seven members - Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and the United States - share financial intelligence to target activities that pose a threat to the national security of its members.
Since its inception in 2017, the TFTC has issued five rounds of joint designations against over 60 terrorist individuals and entities spanning the globe. These designations targeted a wide range of terrorist organizations, including ISIS and its affiliates, al-Qa’ida, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Lebanese Hizballah, and the Taliban.
Most recently, the TFTC announced the designation of six individuals and entities affiliated with ISIS as part of its efforts to disrupt ISIS’s ability to finance its global operations.
These sanctions impact three Syria-based money services businesses - al Haram Exchange, Tawasul Company, and al-Khalidi Exchange - along with a senior ISIS financial facilitator Abd-al-Rahman Ali Husayn al-Ahmad al-Rawi, and Afghanistan-based Nejaat Social Welfare Organization and its director Sayed Habib Ahmad Khan. These individuals and entities were previously designated by the United States pursuant to Executive Order 13224.
All property and interests in property of these targets that are or come within the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC. OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all dealings by U.S. persons or within the United States (including transactions transiting the United States) that involve any property or interests in property of blocked persons.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin highlighted the TFTC’s efforts to maximize the “disruption of terrorist financing around the world. The TFTC has brought the U.S. and its Gulf partners closer together to confront shared regional threats and build the lasting capacity to target terrorist financial networks wherever they operate.”
The TFTC designations, said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement, “serve as a further warning to individuals and businesses who provided financial support or material assistance to terrorist organizations.”
