Iran’s weekend attack on Israel and monetary support for militant groups in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq could have far-reaching economic impacts in the region and beyond, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday.
Yellen said her Treasury Department "will not hesitate to work with our allies to use our sanctions authority to continue disrupting the Iranian regime's malign and destabilizing activity.”
Yellen was speaking ahead of spring meetings this week of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
The United States has long used sanctions to isolate Iran from its proxies and global economic systems.
Iran’s attack Saturday was in retaliation for a deadly April 1 strike on its consulate in Damascus, which Tehran blames on Israel. Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles, which the Israeli military said were mostly shot down and resulted in no deaths. It was Iran’s first assault on Israel from its own soil.
The rising tension has prompted appeals from the international community to avoid stoking a wider conflict. On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 33,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in an Israeli assault on Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry.
In her statement, Yellen called for urgent action to end the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and noted that the economic pressures on Hamas should not impede aid for the displaced people in Gaza who are on the verge of a famine.
"It is incumbent on all of us here at these meetings to do everything in our power to end this suffering," she said.
Yellen highlighted that Washington is also using sanctions to address violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
Some information for this report was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
