Congressional terror finance task force targets Iran
The potential lifting of sanctions has led Congress to seek other avenues to block Tehran from funding terror.
A new congressional task force on terrorism financing immediately focused its attention on Iran at its inaugural meeting on April 22.
Concerns that Tehran could gain access to $130 billion in blocked funds and use it to fund Hezbollah and other proxies dominated the hearing of the House Financial Services Committee panel, which has a broad mandate to help bankrupt the Islamic State and other terrorist organizations. Witnesses urged the panel to consider a host of measures, from blacklisting more Iranian officials to clamping down on front companies.
"What capabilities do we have … to intercept the transfer of these funds and the use of these funds that would clearly be diverted [to terrorist groups]?" asked Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C., the panel's vice-chairman.
Jonathan Schanzer, of the pro-Israel Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), called Iran the "terrorist central bank." He said a number of groups — Yemen's Houthi rebels, the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas — are "salivating" at the prospect of sanctions being lifted as part of a nuclear deal.
