Global Terror-Finance Watchdog Set to Sanction Iran. Blacklist would broaden U.S. effort to isolate Tehran financially and potentially further strain the Iranian economy

Wall Street Journal ^ | February 20, 2020 | Benoit Faucon and Ian Talley

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A global terror-finance watchdog agency is set to blacklist Iran, broadening a U.S. effort to isolate Tehran financially and potentially straining the already sanctions-battered Iranian economy.

Iran’s blacklisting by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force is expected to take place Friday and comes after European governments decided to join the U.S., according to American and allied officials.

The task force’s decision will place financial transactions with Iran under additional scrutiny and escalate the pressure on the dwindling number of banks and businesses still dealing with the Islamic Republic to cut their ties.

The blacklisting marks a step forward in the U.S. campaign to use sanctions to compel the Iranian government to end its support for terrorist groups and eliminate its nuclear weapons program. Most Western banks have already severed links with Tehran in response to the U.S. sanctions, which have also drastically cut Iran’s oil sales—its largest revenue source—weakened its economy and helped fuel street protests against the government.

European governments declined to join the U.S. pressure campaign in an effort to save the multination Iran nuclear accord, from which the Trump administration withdrew in 2018.

In recent weeks, European officials have told the State Department that their governments will back the Financial Action Task Force in imposing the stringent new measures targeting Iran’s financial system, said the U.S. and allied officials.

The task force comprises 39 member countries and organizations including the Gulf Co-operation Council. It sets guidelines to combat financing and money laundering used by terrorists, corrupt politicians and international criminal organizations involved in illegal arms trade, drug-trafficking and sex slavery.

Its member-country representatives have been meeting this week in Paris and will hold a full plenary session Friday during which the decision on Iran’s listing is expected to be finalized, the officials said.

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Trump does not want to get us into more wars or nation-build, but he does work with other countries and use U.S. military and economic power to make the U.S. and the world safer. Besides tightening the screws on Iran, another example is his getting Mexico to stop Central Americans from crossing through Mexico and into the U.S.

By contrast, Sanders has supported America's communist and socialist adversaries -- Russia, Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela -- his whole life.