Sanctions Archives - APADANA MEDIA https://apadanamedia.org/tag/sanctions/ MEDIA NEWS Mon, 04 Nov 2019 18:29:28 +0000 en hourly 1 164847928 US sanctions Iran supreme leader’s aides on embassy anniversary https://apadanamedia.org/us-sanctions-iran-supreme-leaders-aides-on-embassy-anniversary/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=us-sanctions-iran-supreme-leaders-aides-on-embassy-anniversary https://apadanamedia.org/us-sanctions-iran-supreme-leaders-aides-on-embassy-anniversary/#respond Mon, 04 Nov 2019 18:29:28 +0000 https://apadanamedia.org/?p=25931 The United States on Monday slapped sanctions on nine aides to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the 40th anniversary of revolutionary zealots seizing the US embassy in Tehran. The United States said it was also offering a $20 million reward for information to find Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent and CIA contractor […]

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]]> The United States on Monday slapped sanctions on nine aides to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the 40th anniversary of revolutionary zealots seizing the US embassy in Tehran.
The United States said it was also offering a $20 million reward for information to find Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent and CIA contractor who went missing in Iran in 2007 in mysterious circumstances.
The Treasury Department said it was imposing sanctions on nine members of Khamenei’s inner circle, accusing them of “repression” at home and exporting “terrorism” overseas.
“This action further constricts the supreme leader’s ability to execute his agenda of terror and oppression,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
The targeted individuals include a number of prominent Iranians, among them judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi and Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior foreign policy adviser to Khamenei.
Velayati, who served as Iran’s foreign minister from 1981-1997, is wanted in Argentina in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center blamed on Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group with close ties to Tehran.
Also targeted by the sanctions was Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff, which is under Khamenei’s command.
The sanctions mean that any US assets held by the individuals will be blocked and make financial dealings with them a crime for anyone under US jurisdiction.
The move was timed to occur on the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Iran, which had been a close ally of Washington under the deposed Western-oriented shah.
Zealots held the diplomats for 444 days, leading the United States to break off ties and souring relations to this day.
“Forty years later, the revolutionary regime in Tehran has proven, time and again, that its first acts after gaining power were a clear indication of its evil character,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
“The regime continues to unjustly detain Americans and to support terrorist proxy groups like Hezbollah that engage in hostage taking,” he said.
But he said that the United States sought “friendship” and a “truly representative government” with Iran’s people.
“While the Iranian regime’s decision to jail our diplomats has cast a 40-year shadow over our relations, the United States knows that the longest-suffering victims of the Iranian regime are the Iranian people,” Pompeo said.
The top US diplomat described Levinson as the “longest-held hostage in US history.”
Levinson traveled to Iran’s Kish island in 2007, with his family saying he was a private investigator looking into cigarette smuggling.
He disappeared the day after he arrived and Iranian officials say they know nothing about him.
In 2011, the State Department cited reports that he may be held in the lawless border region with Pakistan.

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]]> https://apadanamedia.org/us-sanctions-iran-supreme-leaders-aides-on-embassy-anniversary/feed/ 0 25931 Report to Congress List of Persons Who Are Responsible for or Complicit in Certain Human Rights Abuses in Iran https://apadanamedia.org/report-to-congress-list-of-persons-who-are-responsible-for-or-complicit-in-certain-human-rights-abuses-in-iran/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=report-to-congress-list-of-persons-who-are-responsible-for-or-complicit-in-certain-human-rights-abuses-in-iran https://apadanamedia.org/report-to-congress-list-of-persons-who-are-responsible-for-or-complicit-in-certain-human-rights-abuses-in-iran/#respond Fri, 09 Aug 2019 02:07:36 +0000 https://apadanamedia.org/?p=14524 Pursuant to the authorities delegated to the Secretary of State in E.O. 13553, which implements Section 105 of the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010, as amended (CISADA) (Public Law 111-195), as well as in the October 9, 2012, Delegation of Certain Functions and Authorities Under the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria […]

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]]> Pursuant to the authorities delegated to the Secretary of State in E.O. 13553, which implements Section 105 of the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010, as amended (CISADA) (Public Law 111-195), as well as in the October 9, 2012, Delegation of Certain Functions and Authorities Under the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012 (TRA), below is a list of individuals and entities determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with or at the recommendation of the Secretary of State, to meet the criteria in Sections 105(b) and 105B(b) of CISADA. Sections 105A and 105B of CISADA were originally implemented by Sections 2 and 3, respectively, of E.O. 13628, and are now implemented by section 7 of E.O. 13846.

This report includes the most recent designations that were announced on January 24, 2019 pursuant to E.O. 13553: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force; the Fatemiyoun Division; and the Zaynabiyoun Brigade. This report also includes the designation of Ghavamin Bank, announced on November 5, 2018, pursuant to E.O. 13553. Finally, the report includes the designation of Ayandeh Bank, also on November 5, 2018, pursuant to E.O. 13846.

The Departments of State and the Treasury continue to seek new targets, and Treasury will designate those persons determined to meet the relevant criteria as information becomes available.

The individuals designated to date under E.O. 13553 are:

  • Abdollah Araghi, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Ground Forces Deputy Commander;
  • Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, Prosecutor General of Tehran;
  • Hassan Firouzabadi, senior military advisor to the Supreme Leader, former Chairman of Iran’s Joint Chiefs of Staff;
  • Mohammad Ali Jafari, Commander of the IRGC;
  • Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam, former Commander of the Law Enforcement Forces;
  • Sadeq Mahsouli, former Minister of Welfare and Social Security, former Minister of the Interior and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces for Law Enforcement;
  • Qolam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, Judiciary Spokesman, former Prosecutor-General of Iran, former Minister of Intelligence;
  • Saeed Mortazavi, former head of Iranian Anti-Smuggling Task Force, former Prosecutor-General of Tehran;
  • Heydar Moslehi, former Minister of Intelligence;
  • Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, former Minister of the Interior and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces for Law Enforcement;
  • Mohammad Reza Naqdi, former Commander of the Basij Guard Corps (IRGC);
  • Ahmad-Reza Radan, former Deputy Chief of Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces, Senior Iranian Law Enforcement Official;
  • Hossein Taeb, Deputy Commander of the IRGC, Commander of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, former Commander of the Basij Forces;
  • Asghar Mir-Hejazi, Intelligence advisor to the Supreme Leader;
  • Sohrab Soleimani, Supervisor of the Office of the Deputy for Security and Law Enforcement of the State Prisons Organization, former Director General of the Tehran Prisons Organization;
  • Sadegh Amoli Larijani, Head of Iran’s Judiciary;
  • Gholamreza Ziaei, Director of Rajaee Shahr Prison;
  • Abdholhamid Mohtasham, founding member of Ansar-e Hizballah;
  • Hossein Allahkaram, cofounder and leader of Ansar-e Hizballah; and
  • Hamid Ostad, founder of Mashhad branch of Ansar-e Hizballah.

The entities designated to date under E.O. 13553 are:

  • The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps;
  • The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force;
  • The Basij Resistance Force;
  • Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran;
  • The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security;
  • Abyssec;
  • Tehran Prisons Organization;
  • Rajaee Shahr Prison;
  • Ansar-e Hizballah;
  • Evin Prison;
  • The Fatemiyoun Division;
  • The Zaynabiyoun Brigade; and
  • Ghavamin Bank.

The individuals that were designated under Section 2 or Section 3 of E.O. 13628 are:

  • Ali Fazli, Deputy Commander of the Basij;
  • Rasool Jalili, Sharif University of Technology, member of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace;
  • Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam, former Commander of the Law Enforcement Forces;
  • Reza Taghipour, former Minister of Communications and Information Technology;
  • Ezzatollah Zarghami, former Director of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, member of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace;
  • Morteza Tamaddon, former Governor-General of Tehran Province;
  • Abolhassan Firouzabadi, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace;
  • Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, Secretary of the Committee to Determine Instances of Criminal Content; and
  • Abdulali Ali-Asgari, Director General of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.

The entities that were designated under Section 2 or Section 3 of E.O. 13628 are:

  • Amn Afzar Gostar-e Sharif;
  • Center to Investigate Organized Crime;
  • Iranian Communications Regulatory Authority;
  • Iran Electronic Industries;
  • Iranian Cyber Police;
  • Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting;
  • Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance;
  • PeykAsa;
  • Press Supervisory Board;
  • Committee to Determine Instances of Criminal Content;
  • Ofogh Saberin Engineering Development Company;
  • Douran Software Technologies;
  • Supreme Council of Cyberspace; and
  • The National Cyberspace Center.

The entities designated to date under Section 7 of E.O. 13846 are:

  • Ayandeh Bank.

The Secretary of State will continue to exercise the functions delegated to him, including submitting updated lists to the appropriate congressional committees as required by CISADA Sections 105(b)(2), 105A(b)(4), and 105B(b)(2).

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