The U.S. Treasury is working with Saudi Arabia to combat funding for terrorism, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday at the opening of the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center.
"We're here to open the terrorist financing targeting center, which this is something we signed, a memorandum of understanding, when the president was here. It is one of my single most important priorities, as you know, to fight terrorist financing," Mnuchin said on Fox Business' "Mornings With Maria."
The center aims to find those who are funding terror activities using the financial system, Mnuchin said.
"We have our intelligence agencies working together, and this is a multi-country approach. So for the first time, we'll have multi-countries here in the Gulf doing sanctions with us," Mnuchin said.
The sanctions are a "terrific economic tool" to take on terrorism, Mnuchin added.
President Donald Trump's administration set sanctions on eight individuals and a business that are affiliated with the Islamic State in Yemen and with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula on Wednesday in coordination with the center, according to The New York Times.
Other countries working with the center are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, according to The Times.