“We will continue to root out those who seek to abuse the U.S. and international financial system to fund and engage in terrorism,” said under secretary Brian E. Nelson.

By JNS

Brian E. Nelson, under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Department of the Treasury. Credit: Official Treasury Portrait via Wikimedia Commons.

A charcoal export business has now been exposed as one cog in a terrorism funding machine crossing continents to support Iran’s efforts to expunge the Jewish state.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Drug Enforcement Administration named numerous individuals and businesses it designated as supporters of Hezbollah.

“I applaud the decision of U.S. Treasury to sanction Amer Mohamed Akil Rada, one of the operational members of Hezbollah who carried out the terrorist attack against the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) in Argentina in 1994 that killed 85 people,” said Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism

Brian E. Nelson, the under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, said that “today’s action underscores the U.S. government’s commitment to pursuing Hezbollah operatives and financiers, no matter their location.”

He added that “we will continue to root out those who seek to abuse the U.S. and international financial system to fund and engage in terrorism.”