{"id":5772,"date":"2026-03-05T23:40:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/5772\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T23:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:40:19","slug":"we-must-terminate-tehrans-tentacles-of-terrorism-not-just-iranian-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/5772\/","title":{"rendered":"We must terminate Tehran’s tentacles of terrorism, not just Iranian leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

For decades, the United States and its allies have relied on sanctions<\/a> to constrain the regime\u2019s oil exports and sever its access to the formal financial system. While Iran has threatened to close the Straits of Hormuz<\/a>, halting its own illicit oil shipments (some 90 percent of which go to China) would cripple its most critical revenue stream. However, a sustained conflict will inevitably degrade its ability to do so, if not destroy it altogether. Iran\u2019s surviving leaders will therefore increasingly rely on alternative illicit revenue streams and accumulated reserves.<\/p>\n

STRIKING IRAN NOW IS RISKY. HOLDING OFF WOULD HAVE BEEN A GREATER GAMBLE<\/a><\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s global \u201cshadow banking\u201d <\/a>system comprises thousands of shell and front companies<\/a>, exchange houses, money transmitters, hawala-style networks, and complicit professional enablers operating in jurisdictions with weak oversight. Tehran has also expanded into digital assets, with roughly $10 billion<\/a> in crypto transactions<\/a> detected last year.<\/p>\n

These networks were built specifically to circumvent sanctions and sustain nuclear proliferation<\/a>, terrorist groups, proxy militias, and domestic repression<\/a>. If they remain intact, so too does the regime\u2019s capacity to pursue these objectives.<\/p>\n

An immediate risk is that these funds could be directed to activate the terrorist sleeper cells<\/a> or local organized crime groups that Tehran engages<\/a> to conduct bombings and assassinations in Western countries. Even if the regime collapses quickly, die-hard adherents with access to funds could reconstitute themselves as the world\u2019s leading non-state sponsors of terrorism.<\/p>\n

If the regime proves more resilient than expected, it will draw on these resources not only to retaliate through terrorist proxies<\/a> but to re-arm itself, further repress the population, and perhaps even continue its underground enrichment program.<\/p>\n

Opportunistic insiders may also try to abscond with regime funds to which they have access. Iran\u2019s economy is a kleptocracy dominated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps<\/a> and sham religious foundations. Officials who publicly denounce Western decadence routinely funnel stolen wealth to support their families living in Western luxury.<\/p>\n

Focusing on financial measures may seem premature when American troops are very much in harm\u2019s way and Iran\u2019s political future is uncertain. But as the rush to freeze Russian assets<\/a> after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 demonstrated, time is of the essence in an era when funds can be transferred worldwide at the click of a button.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, the U.S. Treasury Department possesses substantial capabilities to identify and freeze Iranian assets under legal authorities developed during the wars on terror and drugs<\/a>. It has long devoted significant time and resources to mapping Iran\u2019s financial networks, and now has the added experience of hunting Russian assets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

OPINION: NO, THE WAR POWERS RESOLUTION DOESN\u2019T GIVE THE PRESIDENT 60 DAYS OF FREE WAR<\/a><\/p>\n

But dismantling Iran\u2019s offshore empire will require coordinated international enforcement. The Treasury Department should immediately establish an Iran-focused successor to the Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs (REPO) task force<\/a>. After Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, REPO provided a platform for intelligence sharing and operational coordination among U.S. allies and partners that helped freeze <\/a>more than $30 billion in Russian assets.<\/p>\n

The private sector should be put on notice that secondary sanctions will be imposed aggressively against businesses facilitating Iranian capital flight. This includes banks, lawyers, and accountants not only in China (Iran\u2019s major economic partner<\/a>) but otherwise reliable partners like the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Malaysia, whose economies have become global money laundering hubs.<\/p>\n

Congress can help reinforce these efforts. Lawmakers could enact narrowly tailored legislation authorizing the seizure \u2014 not merely the freezing \u2014 of designated Iranian regime assets, modeled on the REPO for Ukrainians Act. Congress could also create a Fund for the Iranian People, directing the Treasury Department<\/a> to deposit seized assets into an escrow account restricted to humanitarian relief and, should a stable and legitimate government emerge, lawful repatriation.<\/p>\n

HOW THE IRAN CONFLICT WAS LAUNCHED: \u2018OPERATION EPIC FURY IS APPROVED. NO ABORTS. GOOD LUCK\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, this moment is an opportunity to accelerate overdue domestic reforms. For example, the Treasury\u2019s undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, John K. Hurley, recently announced measures to reduce compliance burdens<\/a> and refocus bank reporting on actionable intelligence. The Treasury Department should also reconsider its decision to shelve the U.S. beneficial ownership registry, which is designed to curb shell company abuse: Iran itself controlled a Manhattan skyscraper<\/a> for decades through a front entity before law enforcement uncovered the arrangement. How many more such cases remain undiscovered?<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s political and military leadership<\/a> has already been decapitated. But unless its financial networks are dismantled and its resources seized, the threat it poses will endure. Defunding the regime is not ancillary to military action but critical for ensuring that its capacity for terror, repression, and corruption does not survive defeat on the battlefield.<\/p>\n

Nate Sibley serves as a Fellow and Director of the Kleptocracy Initiative at the Hudson Institute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For decades, the United States and its allies have relied on sanctions to constrain the regime\u2019s oil exports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[262,817,34,2828,37,179,509,69,545,3769],"class_list":{"0":"post-5772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tehran","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-foreign-affairs","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-iran-nuclear-program","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-military","14":"tag-sanctions","15":"tag-tehran","16":"tag-terrorism","17":"tag-treasury-department"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116179214215621939","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}