US: UAE role vital to block terror funds

US, UAE and other GCC countries are cooperating to counter terrorist financing

The UAE has a critical role to play in efforts to block terrorist financing, US Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker said yesterday.

At a press briefing in Dubai, Mandelker spoke of the “strong cooperation” between the US and the UAE and other Gulf members of the Terrorist Financing Targeting Centre (TFTC). The US and the UAE in May uncovered a currency exchange network helping funnel cash through the UAE for Iran’s Quds Force, the covert branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, she said, citing the discovery and shutting down of the network as an example of strong US-UAE cooperation.

Through the TFTC, she said, “we have a number of additional efforts that are well under way and we think that it really sends a very strong unified message...’’.

As a financial hub linking the US, Europe and Asia. the UAE has a critical role to play in efforts to block terrorist financing, US Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker said yesterday.

At a press briefing in Dubai, during a short tour of Gulf countries that has taken her to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, Mandelker spoke of the “strong cooperation” between the US and the UAE and other Gulf members of the Terrorist Financing Targeting Centre (TFTC) set up as a result of President Trump’s visit to the Middle East in 2017.

The US and the UAE in May uncovered a currency exchange network helping funnel cash through the UAE for Iran’s Quds Force, the covert branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, she said, citing the discovery and shutting down of the network as an example of strong US-UAE cooperation.

“This network of currency exchanges abused the UAE financial sector by transferring cash out of Iran and converting it to US dollars for the benefit of the Quds Force, money that they — as we all know — use to fund regional proxy groups to destabilise the region.

“In order to conceal the Quds Force involvement and these activities from UAE authorities the network forged documents and purposefully disguised its conduct behind seemingly legitimate businesses, hiding its illicit activities behind front and shell companies.”

Through the TFTC, she said, “we have a number of additional efforts that are well underway and we think that it really sends a very strong unified message that the United States and our Gulf partners are very committed to countering terrorist financing in the region.”

Financial hub

She added: “The UAE is a major international finance hub that serves as a critical conduit connecting the financial systems of the United States, Asia and Europe and so we are also very committed to working with the UAE on antimoney-laundering and countering the financing of terrorism programmes there too. We have a number of joint efforts and very strong collaboration with our UAE partners.”

The reimposition of US sanctions on Iran are necessary due to the failure of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), created to bring Iran back into the international community, was the primary focus of her statement. The sanctions — including on Iranian oil and on financial institutions dealing with the Central Bank of Iran — are due to come back into full force on November 4.

Mandelker declined to specify how the US would convince other nations to join it in sanctions — it is involved in a trade war with China, the biggest importer of Iranian oil, and the European Union announced in May that it preferred to salvage the JCPOA. But she strongly hinted that the US would enforce sanctions against private companies, whatever their national government’s view.

“We’re very serious about our authorities and we’re very serious about our use of those authorities,” Mandelker said, referring to a press briefing given last week by US State Department Director of Policy Planning Brian Hook. “We are seeing a number of companies — every day, it seems there’s a new major company that’s announcing it’s getting out of Iran. The private sector is responding very quickly to the snapback of our sanctions. We expect that to continue.”

She added: “I think the private sector is getting out for a number of reasons. Number one, they have a very clear understanding of our sanctions authorities and how the US has and will continue to implement and enforce those sanctions as we have in the past.”