Tommy Pigott: the Islamic Republic's ability to finance proxy groups has been destroyed

Tommy Pigott, the US State Department spokesman, said in an interview with Al Arabiya on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, that the United States has destroyed the Islamic Republic's ability to transfer money and equipment to its proxy groups. According to him, Tehran now has neither enough money to support these groups nor a way to get money to them.

Pigott also reported "historic progress" in implementing the Lebanon framework agreement and said disarming Hezbollah is essential for peace. The agreement, signed between Israel, Lebanon and the United States with the mediation of the US Secretary of State, makes the Lebanese government responsible for disarming Hezbollah.

Dispute over 200 million dollars for Hezbollah

The US State Department spokesman had earlier, in an interview with Al Jazeera, called a Reuters report that 200 million dollars from the Islamic Republic had reached Hezbollah inaccurate, saying that even if such money had arrived, it would be spent on the group's activities, not on displaced Lebanese. Reuters had reported on 7 October that intermediaries took a 20 percent commission to move this sum, with the routes through Iraq and Dubai closed; four times the usual rate.

Sanctions on the IRGC's financial networks

In recent months the US Treasury Department has sanctioned several networks transferring money from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force to Hezbollah. Scott Bessent, the US Treasury Secretary, said on 10 September, when announcing sanctions on Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq and on Hezbollah's financial network, that Washington had targeted those standing alongside the Islamic Republic's "failing government". According to the Treasury, two intermediaries had delivered hundreds of millions of dollars from the Quds Force to Hezbollah in the first half of the Iranian year 1404 (March to September 2025), and the ministry's earlier estimate of money transferred to Hezbollah in the first 10 months of 2025 was more than one billion dollars.

On 21 August the United States changed Hezbollah's legal designation from "terrorist organisation" to "proxy force of the Islamic Republic" and sanctioned 10 people for moving money with passenger couriers between Lebanon, Turkey, the UAE and Iran.

The remarks come as the Islamic Republic's oil exports have fallen to zero under the US naval blockade, and the revenue that for years was spent on proxy groups has slipped from the government's hands. Bank of America has also been fined more than 1.2 billion dollars for violating sanctions.

According to the US State Department, the Islamic Republic no longer has enough money for proxy groups or a way to get money to them.