Dec 9, 2014

Two key House panels are stepping up their rhetoric against Qatar and Turkey and urging that the Treasury Department take "all necessary measures" against the two countries if they continue to support Hamas.

Leaders of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittees on terrorism and the Middle East are gathering signatures on a letter to the Treasury's top sanctions official praising his efforts to date but demanding his "immediate attention" to their request that more be done. The letter is expected to draw strong bipartisan support and has been in the works since the panels held a joint hearing on Hamas financing back in September, a committee source tells Al-Monitor.

The letter in particular slams Qatar for harboring Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and for its $400 million donation for Gaza reconstruction in 2012. The country's then-ruler, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, was the first head of state to visit Gaza since Hamas took over five years earlier in 2007.

"Any entity or nation that continues to back this US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization and provide it material and financial support should be sanctioned," states the letter to Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen. "Therefore, as Members of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa and the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade, we are requesting that Treasury use every tool available to designate all individuals, institutions, entities, charities, front companies, banks and government officials who clearly violate US laws by assisting Hamas and its proxies. We also request specific public updates on Treasury’s discussions with the Qatari government on previously designated, Qatar-based terrorist financiers that the Qataris have yet to act upon."

Turkey is also on lawmakers' blacklist for serving as the headquarters for Saleh al-Arouri, whom lawmakers accuse of heading the group's terrorist operations in the West Bank.