Deputy Treasury Sec’y on Not Sanctioning Charities Designated as Terror Groups: Working with Institutions Is Key

On Friday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo responded to a question on the U.S. not sanctioning charities for Palestine that have been labeled as terror groups by stating that “The most important thing we can do is to work closely with the financial institutions who are transacting money that goes to many of these charities, to make sure that they are allowing for legitimate transactions” for humanitarian assistance while ensuring Hamas doesn’t get the money.

Co-host Phil Mattingly asked, “There are humanitarian carveouts in all of the sanctions that Treasury puts out. That’s particularly complicated in this case, given Hamas is the governing body of Gaza. There are also some charities that have been labeled as terror groups that have not been sanctioned yet, particularly as it pertains to Hamas. How do you make that distinction at this point?”

Adeyemo responded, “The most important thing we can do is to work closely with the financial institutions who are transacting money that goes to many of these charities, to make sure that they are allowing for legitimate transactions that allow humanitarian assistance to flow to Gaza and to flow to the Palestinian people, while making sure that the organization that Hamas has set up to try and divert those flows [does] not get access to that financing. That’s why I’m here in the U.K. today, because we want to make sure that countries around the world, including in Europe, take similar actions to help ensure that Hamas doesn’t get access to funding, but that the Palestinian people get access to the humanitarian aid they need, as well as humanitarian financing.”

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