US Treasury blacklists Iraqi bank as part of broader Iran sanctions

Move comes amid stalemate in US-Iran war that began in February

The new designations announced Thursday reach across three countries. The Treasury blacklisted Iraq’s International Development Bank for Investment and Finance, or IDB, alongside Iran-based Jazireh International Bank Company and Chabahar International Bank Overseas Company, while the State Department designated Cuba’s state-owned Banco Internacional de Comercio.

According to the Treasury, IDB maintains ties to Iranian government entities and Iran-backed militias. The administration accuses the bank of conducting business using Iranian capital and sending the resulting profits back monthly in US dollars.

“The noose is tightening around Iran’s economy, and not even Iran’s so-called allies can save it,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

“The Department of the Treasury will not relent until the Iranian regime’s coffers are empty and every remaining financial lifeline sustaining its war machine has been severed,” Bessent said.

The Treasury blacklisted Iran-based Jazireh International Bank Company and Chabahar International Bank Overseas Company on accusations of being so-called offshore banks for the Iranian regime.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Banco Internacional de Comercio of providing services to Iran’s Karafarin Bank since at least 2022, despite the US Treasury having blacklisted Karafarin Bank two years earlier.

“For too long, Communist Cuba has been allowed to operate as an outpost for malign actors and terror groups — including the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism — to target the United States,” Rubio said in a statement.

“Let me be clear: The Trump administration will not tolerate a rogue state hosting hostile foreign military, intelligence and terror operations less than a hundred miles from the American homeland. We will continue to aggressively identify and eliminate the Cuban regime’s financial and security interconnections with Iran and other dangerous and hostile states and actors,” Rubio said.

The United States has been at war with Iran since late February, but the conflict has settled into a stalemate, with large-scale US military action relenting to economic warfare and intermittent fighting, and prospects on an end to the fighting appearing distant.