Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday at the No Money for Terror Conference in Paris, France, detailed the Trump administration’s work to combat terror financing.
Bessent delivered the keynote remarks at the No Money for Terror conference, where he called on America’s partners to join President Donald Trump and the United States in taking action against Iran.
“Months before this conference began in 2018, President Trump enshrined in doctrine what the United States had long been reminded of in practice: economic security is national security,” Bessent said at the conference. “Now, in his second term, President Trump has restored that principle to its rightful place at the center of American strategy. Our economic statecraft again mirrors the might of our military and the strength of our commitment to countering terrorism in all its forms.”
Bessent said that other countries need to step up in combatting terrorist financing. He explained:
Of course, the United States is hardly alone in facing the scourge of terrorism, especially from Iran. Yet, too often, we seem to be alone in our resolve to thwart it. As President Trump brings renewed vigor and focus to this fight, crushing the threat of terrorism compels all of you to step up and join us in rooting out the financing that sustains it — from shell companies that are embedded within Europe, to shadow banking networks that lurk across the Middle East, and drug cartels across the Western Hemisphere. For at their core, sanctions are not acts of aggression, they are instruments of peace. Their purpose is not to condemn nations or people to indefinite isolation, but to create the conditions that can hasten a change in behavior.
He added, “So, if we are serious about ‘no money for terror,’ then there must also be ‘no room for excuses.’”
Bessent continued:
Now, central to the success of Economic Fury is Treasury’s modernized sanctions architecture, because as our adversaries adapt and innovate, so must we. To sharpen national security outcomes, Treasury is tailoring our sanctions program for the 21st century. We are reviewing outdated and obsolete designations to help financial institutions focus on the most sophisticated terrorist financing and sanctions evasion schemes. Sanctions should not linger so long that their intended effects create unintended consequences. The most effective actions are aggressive and targeted, with defined timelines to drive specific effects. Sanctions are meant to change behavior, not to punish populations. Sanctions left in place for years with no visible and tangible changes in behavior can have generational impacts that are nearly impossible to predict. Any sanctions Treasury deploys today are carefully monitored and adjusted to ensure that they achieve their specific objectives.
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As the United States targets the financial networks that enemy actors use to perpetrate terror, we trust that your participation here today reflects a readiness to stand with us in full measure. That will require, for example, our European partners to join the United States in taking action against Iran by designating its financiers, unmasking its shell and front companies, shuttering its bank branches, and dismantling its proxies. It will require those of you in the Middle East and Asia to root out Iran’s shadow banking networks. And it will require our partners around the globe to respond with force to the array of terrorists that we face — from Hizballah to the Sinaloa Cartel. As threats move across boundaries, our unity of purpose must transcend every border.
“Let us work together to translate the spirit of this conference into a commitment that endures well beyond it. Let us proceed with the recognition that peace is preserved not by sentiment alone, but by those willing to defend its foundations,” he concluded. “And let us deny our adversaries the one thing on which they count most: that those of us assembled in this room will grow weary in our vigilance before they do.”
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