WASHINGTON: The Biden administration on Wednesday slapped sanctions on Iran’s chief prosecutor, four other Iranian officials and a company that supports the country’s security forces for their roles in an ongoing violent crackdown on antigovernment protests.
The Treasury Department announced it is targeting the Prosecutor-General of Iran, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, two senior commanders in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, and two members of the Basij, a paramilitary volunteer group that often enforces strict rules on dress and conduct.
“We denounce the Iranian regime’s intensifying use of violence against its own people who are advocating for their human rights,” Treasury said in a statement, noting that Montazeri has presided over prosecutions of protesters some of whom have been executed or condemned to death.
It identified the IRGC commanders as Hassan Hassanzadeh, the head of its forces in Tehran, and Seyed Sadegh Hosseini, who runs its Beit-al Moghadas Corps of Kurdistan province. The two Basij members are the group’s deputy coordinator, Hossein Maroufi, and Muslim Moein, its cyberspace chief, it said.
Treasury said it is also penalizing the Imen Sanat Zaman Fara Company, which produces armored vehicles and other equipment for the security forces. The sanctions freeze any assets that those targeted may have in US jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with them.
Iran has been rocked by protests since the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died after being detained by the morality police. The protests have since morphed into one of the most serious challenges to the theocracy installed by the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Security forces have violently cracked down on the protests, killing more than 500 protesters and arresting over 18,000, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has been closely monitoring the unrest. More than 60 security forces have been killed, according to the group.
“The United States continues to support the people of Iran in the face of this brutal repression, and we are rallying growing international consensus to hold the regime accountable,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
“Thousands of brave Iranians have risked their lives and their liberty to protest the regime’s long record of oppression and violence,” he said. “We again call on Iran’s leadership to immediately cease its violent crackdown and to listen to its people.”
US hits more Iranian officials with human rights sanctions
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US hits more Iranian officials with human rights sanctions
- US Treasury said it is also penalizing the Imen Sanat Zaman Fara Company, which produces armored vehicles and other equipment
Israeli attacks kill 3,544 in Lebanon since October 2023, health ministry says
CAIRO: Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,544 people and wounded 15,036 in Lebanon since October 2023, with 28 fatalities reported on Monday, the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Israeli settler group slams US sanctions over West Bank
- A statement by the group said the sanctions “result from baseless slander directed at Amana by hostile and extremist elements“
- “Had the US administration bothered to verify the claims... it would have found them to be factually unfounded and refrained from taking action against us”
JERUSALEM: Israeli organization Amana, a movement that backs developing settlements in the occupied West Bank, on Tuesday denounced sanctions imposed on it by the United States the previous day.
A statement by the group said the sanctions “result from baseless slander directed at Amana by hostile and extremist elements.”
“Had the US administration bothered to verify the claims... it would have found them to be factually unfounded and refrained from taking action against us,” the statement said.
US authorities said Monday they would impose sanctions on Amana and its construction branch Binyanei Bar Amana, as well as others who have “ties to violent actors in the West Bank.”
“Amana is a key part of the Israeli extremist settlement movement and maintains ties to various persons previously sanctioned by the US government and its partners for perpetrating violence in the West Bank,” the US Treasury said.
“More broadly, Amana strategically uses farming outposts, which it supports through financing, loans, and building infrastructure, to expand settlements and seize land,” it added.
All settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, are illegal under international law.
Settlement outposts are built by private actors including Amana, and are also illegal under Israeli law.
The new sanctions will block Amana assets in the United States and prevent financial transactions between it and US-based individuals and institutions.
Several Israeli settlers have already been the target of US sanctions.
Amana was founded in 1979 to develop the Jewish presence in the West Bank, the northern Israel region of Galilee and in the Negev region in the south.
It has founded and developed dozens of settlements and settlement outposts since then.
“We are confident that with the change of administration in Washington, and with proper and necessary action by the Israeli government, all sanctions will be lifted,” Amana said Tuesday of US President-elect Donald Trump’s perceived leniency toward Israeli actions.
Yossi Dagan, Shomron Regional Council president, in charge of settlements in the northern West Bank, called the sanctions move “the final act of the Biden administration, which is cynical and hostile toward the Near East’s only democracy.”
Violence in the West Bank, particularly in the north, has soared since the war in the Gaza Strip broke out on October 7 last year after Palestinian militants Hamas attacked southern Israel.
The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA), said in its latest report that 300 incidents involving settlers occurred in the West Bank between October 1 and November 4.
Not counting annexed east Jerusalem, about 490,000 settlers live in the West Bank, which is home to three million Palestinians.
French minister on Gulf tour says Lebanon’s army needs support
- “I have reiterated to each counterpart that we need them to support the Lebanese armed forces,” Sebastien Lecornu said
- “We will have to think about more operational support on the military side“
ABU DHABI: France’s defense minister said Lebanon’s armed forces need more support as he completed a Gulf tour on Tuesday, saying they will be crucial for securing border areas after Israel’s war with Hezbollah.
As efforts toward a ceasefire increase, Sebastien Lecornu told AFP that he had raised the prospect of “operational support” for the Lebanese armed forces during his trip.
“I have reiterated to each counterpart that we need them to support the Lebanese armed forces,” he said after visits to Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
“Both in the central role they play in welfare matters, and in the security aspect. We will have to think about more operational support on the military side.”
Lecornu was speaking in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi before meeting President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed at the end of his three-country tour.
Diplomatic efforts are intensifying to secure a ceasefire based on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
The resolution called for the deployment of Lebanese government forces and United Nations peacekeeping force UNIFIL in areas south of Lebanon’s Litani River near the Israeli border, as well as the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
“There isn’t a better solution at this stage than to respect Resolution 1701 and to support the Lebanese armed forces,” Lecornu said.
But “to secure the border between Israel and Lebanon, and to reinforce Lebanon’s sovereignty, the armed forces must be properly armed,” he added.
The Lebanese army is envisioned as having a greater role in maintaining stability along the border in the event of a ceasefire, though it currently struggles to meet the basic needs of its 80,000 soldiers.
It has previously received financial assistance from Qatar and the United States to pay salaries.
Last month, a conference in Paris raised $200 million to support the Lebanese armed forces, on top of $800 million in humanitarian aid for the country.
Israel expanded the focus of its operations from Gaza to Lebanon in late September, vowing to secure its northern border to allow tens of thousands of people displaced by cross-border fire to return home.
Since the clashes began with Hezbollah attacks on Israel, more than 3,510 people in Lebanon have been killed, according to authorities there, with most fatalities recorded since late September.
The Lebanese government says it is ready to deploy the army to the border to safeguard a ceasefire, and plans to recruit 1,500 more soldiers.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati said last month that 4,500 military personnel were in the south and that he wanted to raise their number to 7,000-11,000.
Lecornu’s tour also comes two weeks before French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Saudi Arabia for a visit focused on defense and investment in new technologies.
Hamas-led force targets gangs looting Gaza aid convoys
- The new force has staged repeated operations, ambushing looters and killing some in armed clashes
- After nearly 100 trucks were looted last week Hamas attacked an armed group gathering near a crossing where aid trucks usually enter
CAIRO: Fighters from Hamas and other Gaza factions have formed an armed force to prevent gangs pillaging aid convoys in the embattled territory, residents and sources close to the group said, after a big increase in the looting of scarce supplies.
Since being formed this month amid rising public anger at aid seizures and price gouging, the new force has staged repeated operations, ambushing looters and killing some in armed clashes, the sources said.
Hamas’ efforts to take a lead in securing aid supplies point to the difficulties Israel will face in a post-war Gaza, with few obvious alternatives to a group it has been trying to destroy for over a year and which it says can have no governing role.
Israel accuses Hamas of hijacking aid. The group denies that and accuses Israel of trying to foment anarchy in Gaza by targeting police guarding aid convoys.
A spokesperson for Israel’s military did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment on Hamas units fighting looters.
Amid the chaos of the war, armed gangs have increasingly raided supply convoys, hijacking trucks and selling the looted stock in Gaza markets at exorbitant prices.
As well as driving anger at the Israeli military, the shortages had also prompted questions of Hamas for its seeming inability to stop the gangs.
“We are all against the bandits and looters so we can live and eat ... now you are obliged to buy from a thief,” said Diyaa Al-Nasara, speaking near a funeral for a Hamas fighter killed in clashes with looters.
The new anti-looting force, formed of well-equipped fighters from Hamas and allied groups, has been named “The Popular and Revolutionary Committees” and is ready to open fire on hijackers who do not surrender, one of the sources, a Hamas government official, said.
The official, who declined to be named because Hamas would not authorize him to speak about it, said the group operated across central and southern Gaza and had carried out at least 15 missions so far, including killing some armed gangsters.
WIDESPREAD HUNGER
Thirteen months into Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza, launched in response to the deadly Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, major shortages of food, medicine and other goods are causing widespread hunger and suffering among civilians.
Israel put commercial goods imports on hold last month and only aid trucks have entered Gaza since then, carrying a fraction of what relief groups say is needed for a territory where most people have lost their homes and have little money.
“It’s getting harder and harder to get the aid in,” said WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris after a series of looting incidents over the weekend.
Before the war, a sack of flour sold for $10 or $15 and a kilogram of milk powder for 30 shekels. Now the flour costs $100 and the milk powder 300 shekels, traders said.
Some people in Gaza say they want Hamas to target looters.
“There is a campaign against thieves, we see that. If the campaign continues and aid flows, the prices will go down because the stolen aid appears in the markets at high cost,” said Shaban, a displaced Gaza City engineer, now living in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
After nearly 100 trucks were looted last week Hamas attacked an armed group gathering near a crossing where aid trucks usually enter, opened heavy fire, killing at least 20 of them, according to residents and the Hamas Aqsa television.
Witnesses described another firefight on Saturday when Hamas fighters in two cars chased men suspected of looting who were in another vehicle, resulting in the death of the suspects.
The Hamas official said the force showed that the group’s governance in Gaza continued.
“Hamas as a movement exists, whether someone likes it or not. Hamas as a government exists too, not as strong as it used to be, but it exists and its personnel are trying to serve the people everywhere in the areas of displacement,” he said.
Israel army says soldier killed in combat in Lebanon
- The sergeant was killed during combat in southern Lebanon, the army said
JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said Tuesday that a soldier was killed in south Lebanon, where its troops have battled Hezbollah since late September after a year of cross-border exchanges of fire.
“Sergeant First Class (Reserve) Omer Moshe Gaeldor, aged 30, from Jerusalem, a soldier from the 5,111 Battalion, Golani Brigade, was killed during combat in southern Lebanon,” the army said, adding three other soldiers were wounded.
