The US Treasury department has slapped sanctions on Iran’s envoy to Iraq and entities for making unclear financial operations to support Iran’s destabilizing foreign agenda and attempting to influence the US next month elections.
“Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating Iraj Masjedi, a general in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq, for acting for or on behalf of the IRGC-QF. A close adviser to former IRGC-QF Commander Qassem Soleimani, Masjedi played a formative role in the IRGC-QF’s Iraq policy,” it said.
Masjedi, the department continued, used his position an Iranian ambassador to “obfuscate financial transfers conducted for the benefit of the IRGC-QF.” Iran according to the department’s Secretary Steven Mnuchin, is appointing IRGC-QF officials to “carry out their destabilizing foreign agenda.”
The sanctions also hit five Iranian entities for attempting to influence the Nov. 3 presidential elections in the US. The move comes a day after senior US officials accused the Islamic Republic and Russia for trying to influence the electoral process in the U.S.
The entities include the IRGC, the IRGC-QF and the Bayan Rasaneh Gostar Institute (Bayan Gostar) “for having directly or indirectly” engaged in interference, and the Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU) and International Union of Virtual Media (IUVM) for being owned or controlled by the IRGC-QF.
U.S target Iranian ambassador in Iraq, five entities with sanctions
