Trump Issues Executive Order To Expand US Sanctions Targeting Terror Leaders - White House

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th September, 2019) President Donald Trump on Tuesday issued a new executive order that allowed the US Treasury and State Departments to unveil new sanctions on 27 individuals and entities allegedly linked to the Islamic State terror group (IS, banned in Russia), Hamas, Hezbollah and other groups.

"I have issued an Executive Order to modernize and expand sanctions to combat terrorism," Trump said in a statement released by the White House. "The Order enhances our ability to use powerful sanctions to target terrorists and their supporters and deprive them of their financial, material, and logistical support worldwide."

The State and Treasury Departments meanwhile announced that Trump's order had paved the way for new sanctions against 27 individuals and entities.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said his department designated 12 leaders from the Islamic State terror group (banned in Russia), Hezbollah and other organizations under the order.

"Today's executive order marks the most significant update to counterterrorism sanctions authority since September of 2001," Pompeo told reporters at a White House press briefing.

The US Treasury Department for its part unveiled new sanctions against 15 leaders, individuals and entities allegedly affiliated with Hamas, IS, al-Qaeda (also banned in Russia), and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods-Force.

This action, combined with the steps taken by the State Department, represents "some of the furthest reaching designations of terrorists and their supporters in the past 15 years," the Treasury said.

Trump's executive order, which comes on the eve of the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, expands the authorities that the Treasury can use to target terrorist leaders, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at the White House briefing.

Those targeted by the Treasury's sanctions include Muhammad Said Izadi, the head of the Palestinian office of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Qods Force in Lebanon.

The Treasury also designated three individuals and four entities in Turkey - Hamas leader Zaher Jabarin and businessmen Marwan Mahdi Salah al-Rawi and Ismael Tash, along with money transfer companies Redin Exchange, SMART, Saksouk, Al Haram and Al-Khalidi.

The new designations also included Syrian IS financier Muhamad Ali al-Hebo and his Al-Hebo jewelry company, Maldives-based IS recruiter Mohamad Ameen, Brazil-based Al-Qaeda facilitator Mohammad Ahmed Elsayed Ahmed Ibrahim, Philipines IS financier Almaida Marani Salvin and an Egyptian Al-Qaeda member in Turkey, Muhammad Ali Sayid Ahmad.

The State Department meanwhile designated Hurras al-Din, an Al-Qaeda-linked group in Syria, along with 12 leaders of Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, IS, Al-Qaeda, Hamas and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force.

The 12 leaders include Noor Wali of the Taliban's branch in Pakistan, Marwan Issa of Hamas, Muhammad al-Hindi and Baha Abu al-Ata of Islamic Jihad, and Ali Karaki, Muhammad Haydar Fuad Shukr and Ibrahim Aqil of Hezbollah.

Also among those designated by the State Department were Hajji Taysir, Abu Abdullah ibn Umar al-Barnawi, Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan of the IS terror group and Faruq al-Suri, a Syrian national who leads Hurras al-Din and formerly was a commander of the Nusra Front terror group.