Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has claimed responsibility for recent attacks on branches of US banks in several Gulf countries, describing them as retaliation for earlier American strikes on two Iranian banks. The statement was reported by Al Jazeera, citing Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.

IRGC spokesperson Sardar Naeini said the US bank branches were targeted in direct response to those previous attacks. He warned that if the United States carries out similar operations again, all American bank branches in the region would become legitimate targets for Iran. The incidents included two consecutive attacks in Dubai’s International Financial Centre area, prompting major US financial institutions such as Citigroup and Standard Chartered to evacuate offices and shift employees to remote work.

In a related move, HSBC closed its branch in Qatar and implemented remote work policies for its regional staff following the attacks.