Members of the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC), a 2017-created body co-chaired by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to fight terrorist financing, jointly designated six targets affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
The TFTC imposed sanctions on three money services businesses and an individual in Turkey and Syria, as well as an Afghanistan-based charity, according to a Treasury statement.
The TFTC serves as a collaborative approach to confronting new and evolving threats arising from terrorist financing. Established in 2017, the body coordinates disruptive actions, shares financial intelligence information, and builds member state capacity to target activities posing national security threats to the TFTC members.
The seven member nations of the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) are Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
The TFTC’s stated goals are to:
1. Identify, track, and share information regarding terrorist financial networks;
2. Coordinate joint disruptive actions, and;
3. Offer support to countries in the region that need assistance building capacity to counter terrorist finance threats.
“The actions taken today serve as a further warning to individuals and businesses who provide financial support or material assistance to terrorist organizations,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
“The TFTC’s momentous efforts over the past three years have maximized the disruption of terrorist financing around the world,” said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. “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.”
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.
Today’s designations “further challenge ISIS’s ability to conceal its activities and finance its operations through key money services businesses and charities operating under false pretenses,” the Treasury department said.
