How America and Its Allies Can Stop Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran from Evading... (EventID=116509)

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Connect with the House Financial Services Committee Get the latest news: https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HouseFinanci... Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FSCDems ___________________________________ On Wednesday, October 25, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. (ET) Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions Chair Congressman Luetkemeyer and Ranking Member Congresswoman Beatty will host a hearing entitled, “How America and Its Allies Can Stop Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran from Evading Sanctions and Financing Terror." ___________________________________ Witnesses for this one-panel hearing will be: • Mr. Richard Goldberg: Senior Advisor, Foundation for Defense of Democracies • Mr. Gabriel Noronha: Fellow, The Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy, The Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) • Jason Brodsky: Policy Director, United Against Nuclear Iran • Adam Zarazinski: Chief Executive Officer, Inca Digital ___________________________________ Iran Background Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the United States has used sanctions as key tool of U.S. policy tool to deter, constrain, and encourage change in the adversarial behavior of the Iranian regime, including its support for international terrorism, nuclear and missile development programs and proliferation activities, destabilizing regional interventions, and human rights abuses. The United States began imposing sanctions on Iran in the early 1980s, after the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the illegal taking of U.S. diplomats as hostages. By 1995, Tehran’s continued support for extremism and terrorism prompted the U.S. to expand its sanctions regime through statutes and Executive Orders (EOs) that aim to isolate the Iranian regime from the financial benefits and resources of the U.S. and its foreign trading partners. Since that time, additional sanctions have been imposed on Iran to deter growth in a variety of industries, such as energy/oil, metals, banking, military and defense development, and petrochemicals. Hamas Background Hamas is a foreign terrorist organization that “emerged in Gaza in the late 1980s and as an alternative to the Fatah movement in the 1990s.” Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip and governed more than two million Palestinians since it seized control from the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority in 2007.4 Iran is one of Hamas’s largest contributors – financially and militarily (weapons, training, defense, etc.). Iran publicly praised “Hamas’s assault on Israel…and pledge(d) its continuing support for the Palestinian group.” General Background on Sanctions Primary sanctions are economic tools that restrict the transactions U.S. persons may conduct with foreign targets (countries, businesses, or individuals) that the U.S. government believes to be working against U.S. national security interests or that the U.S. has deemed guilty of committing international crimes. Secondary sanctions are economic tools imposed to restrict third-party transactions that non-U.S. persons conduct with foreign targets subject to primary sanctions. Secondary sanctions require non-U.S. persons to adhere to U.S. sanctions if they wish to do business with/in U.S., leveraging the value of U.S. market access to deter trade with U.S. sanctioned targets. Failure to comply with U.S. sanctions can result in civil and criminal penalties, such as blocking U.S.-based assets (i.e., freezing targeted property), prohibiting transactions with U.S. persons, limiting use of U.S. financial instruments, denying entry into the United States, or prosecution. For context, “blocking immediately imposes an across-the-board prohibition against transfers or dealings of any kind with regard to the [specified] property.” Current Sanctions Landscape Relating to Iran10 Overview U.S. sanctions on Iran block Iranian government assets in the United States, ban nearly all U.S. trade with Iran (except food and agricultural commodities, medicine, medical supplies, and other humanitarian-related goods), and prohibit foreign assistance and arms sales. U.S. law authorizes sanctions targeting: • Iran’s energy sector, including foreign corporations that invest in and entities that buy, sell, or transport Iranian oil; • Iran’s financial sector, including its Central Bank; • Additional sectors of Iran’s economy, including shipping, construction, mining, textiles, automotive, and manufacturing, as well as entities that conduct transactions with, or otherwise provide support for, those sectors; • Arms trade to or from Iran; and • Many components of Iran’s government (including the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC), including entities that conduct transactions with or otherwise... ___________________________________ Hearing page: https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/events/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=410861