The Trump administration announced Tuesday a new executive order which aims to expand counterterrorism sanctions, allowing the United States to target terrorist leaders without previously tying them to specific acts.
“Foreign financial institutions are now on notice that they risk sanctions if they knowingly conduct or facilitate any significant transactions with designated terrorists and terrorist enablers,” President Donald Trump said in a statement accompanying the executive order.
The measure was detailed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin during a White House briefing with reporters. It will give the State and Treasury Departments the authority to target terrorist leaders and associated entities, Pompeo explained.
The executive order “more effectively and efficiently targets individuals and entities who participate in terrorist training, and provides new authorities to impose sanctions on foreign financial institutions that knowingly do business with terrorists,” The Hill informs.
Mnuchin added that the measure will boost the U.S.’ ability to “identify, sanction and deter perpetrators of terrorism worldwide.”
Along with the announcement, over a dozen sanctions on terrorist leaders, individuals and entities were imposed by the Treasury Department. The State Department also announced 12 new terrorist designations, apart from those already given the label.
Pompeo said the order, which came on the eve of the September 11 anniversary, was the “most significant update.”
“Today’s executive order … adds further muscle to U.S. counterterrorism efforts,” he said. “It will help us to ensure that the deadly attacks of Sept. 11 that occurred 18 years ago this week will never be repeated on American soil.”
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