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European capitals face US pressure to broaden and reinforce their sanctions on Hamas, as Washington pushes for a tougher financial clampdown on the group.
US deputy Treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo said in London on Friday that he wanted a “coalition” with like-minded countries as he sought to prevent the group from shifting around its money and its operations to evade sanctions.
“We are working with partners and allies around the globe to increase information sharing and collaboration to tackle terrorist financing. Hamas should have nowhere to hide,” he said in a speech to the Royal United Services Institute in London. “We look forward to working with the other European countries and jurisdictions to further disrupt Hamas’ efforts.”
The Biden administration is looking for ways to crack down on sources of funding supporting the Palestinian militant group amid the escalating conflict with Israel. On Friday US Treasury officials held talks with UK officials in London ahead of planned discussions in Brussels.
The meetings came as the US imposed a second round of sanctions on Hamas-linked officials and financial networks, as it responds to the October 7 attacks. The new steps target assets in Hamas’ secret investment portfolio and people accused of aiding sanctions evasion, with fresh designations of a Hamas official in Iran as well as a Gaza-based entity.
The US says it has targeted nearly 1,000 individuals and entities that it says are connected to terrorism and terrorist financing by Iran and its proxies, including Hamas and Hizbollah.
Hamas was designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in 1997. More recently, the EU and UK have both hit it with similar designations. But its allies have not gone as far as the US has in sanctioning the group’s leaders.
Officials said the disparity in sanctions lists between the US and its allies was an issue on the table for upcoming talks. French president Emmanuel Macron used his intervention in a debate about the conflict between the EU’s 27 leaders to propose the bloc step up its sanctions against Hamas to close off financing and support routes to the group, two people briefed on the discussions told the FT.
Macron said the measures should mirror those imposed on terror group Isis, the people added.
“You should expect to see joint actions,” said a US Treasury official. A key topic was: “How can we get other countries to act alongside us to make sure that people don’t run from the US or the dollar to the pound or the euro going forward.”
Hamas was already pretty “comprehensively designated” by the US state department and Treasury, and the US now wanted to close any gaps and loopholes while potentially targeting further senior individuals and significant entities, especially in the Middle East, said Alex Zerden, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security think-tank.
“There is a weaker level of designation and enforcement in Europe, and even more so in the Middle East,” Zerden said. “These jurisdictions are now under renewed pressure from the US to strengthen their legal regimes against Hamas, especially in light of the US’s stated strategy of increasing multilateral co-operation in this area.”
Adeyemo will travel to Brussels this weekend and hold discussions with senior EU officials on how to co-ordinate on sanctions against Hamas, according to officials briefed on the plans. The US also wants to see crypto asset firms doing more to help the crackdown on illicit financing.
The Biden administration is under political pressure in Washington to take tougher action on crypto.
Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator, and around 100 lawmakers sent a letter to the White House and Treasury calling for a crackdown on illicit crypto activity following reports that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller, Iran-backed militant group in Gaza, were raising millions of dollars via cryptocurrencies ahead of the attack on Israel on October 7.
At the same time the US is seeking to avoid hitting flows of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas. Israel has responded to the October 7 attack by bombarding and laying siege to the strip that is home to 2.3mn people.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has insisted that US sanctions are directed at Hamas and its support network not at Palestinians. “Hamas alone is responsible for the carnage its militants have inflicted on the people of Israel, and it should immediately release all hostages in its custody,” he said earlier this month.
The EU listed Hamas as a terrorist organisation in 2003, imposing a travel ban and assets freeze on its members.
“In general when it comes to sanctions, the decisions are made by the member states in a confidential process by unanimity,” said Peter Stano, foreign affairs spokesman for the European Commission. “The EU always tries to co-ordinate with international partners its sanctions decisions when possible.”
The EU was “actively engaged” with G7 and G20 members “to step up measures against terrorism financing and money laundering”, Stano added.
The UK Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
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