Today, Thursday, the United States imposed sanctions on members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and a company affiliated with the Quds Force, accusing them of participating in terrorist plots targeting former US government officials, citizens of US and Iranian citizenship, and Iranian dissidents.
The US Treasury Department said that it is targeting, from this step, three individuals residing in Iran and Turkey, a company affiliated with the Quds Force, the arm of the Revolutionary Guards for foreign operations, and two senior officials in the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Service for their involvement in planning assassinations of civilians, including journalists, abroad.
Last January, the US Department of Justice announced the arrest of three people on suspicion of involvement in a Tehran-backed plot to assassinate opposition Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad in the United States.
The announcement of the arrest of the three persons and charges of attempted murder came to them six months after the arrest of one of them, Khaled Mehdiyev, in front of Alinejad’s house in New York, in possession of an “AK-47” assault rifle.
Last April, the US Department of Justice announced that a woman had been sentenced to four years in prison on charges of providing material support to the attempt to kidnap Iranian opposition figure Masih Alinejad on American soil.
The 48-year-old American of Iranian descent, Nilufar Bahadurifar, admitted in December to providing financial assistance to Iran, in violation of US sanctions imposed on Iran.
Since 2015, Bahadurifar has been accused of helping Iranians, including Mahmoud Khazin, who is classified by the United States as an agent of Tehran, to gain access to the American financial system.