ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said Saturday that Washington’s decision to sanction a Turkish financial institution a day earlier was not “a judgment” on Ankara, rejecting suggestions that the measure targeted Turkey’s financial system.

The US Treasury Department on Friday imposed “Iran-related” sanctions on Turkey’s Golden Global Investment Bank and its subsidiaries, according to a new listing on the Treasury’s website, accusing them of facilitating tens of millions of dollars in transactions for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF).

Barrack said in a post on X that the move was part of Washington’s economic campaign against Tehran, which aims at “closing, one by one, the channels through which Tehran launders the proceeds of its activities.”

“This designation is aimed at the conduct of one entity, not at a nation, not at a banking system, and not at an ally,” he added.

The ambassador said it would be a “serious error” to interpret the “narrow measure” as “a judgement” on Turkey, stressing that “The health of the Turkish financial system is not in question; the conduct of one institution was.”

He said the US Treasury and its Turkish counterparts had remained in “direct and continuous contact” throughout the process, praising Ankara for acting as a “sovereign partner.”

The measures come as Washington has intensified its economic campaign against Tehran.

In August, the US Treasury Department announced a new set of measures targeting digital asset exchanges and currency networks that Tehran “relies on” to move and “launder” large sums of money.

The Treasury has regularly sanctioned entities and individuals it accuses of facilitating the movement of foreign currency into Iran.