Iranwire – The United Kingdom says it has adopted a new sanctions system to respond to “unprecedented threats” from the Islamic Republic of Iran, including “efforts to undermine peace and security across the Middle East and plots to kill individuals on UK soil.”
Announced in July, the sanctions regime gives the UK “extensive new powers to hold Iran and its decision makers to account,” the government said in a statement on December 14, adding that the regime will also include new restrictions on the Islamic Republic’s drone program and shipping.
In coordination with the US, the first sanctions package under the new regime targets Esmail Qaani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s expeditionary Quds Force (IRGC-QF), which is responsible for allied militias from Lebanon to Iraq and from Yemen to Syria.
Six other individuals linked to Tehran’s support for Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), as well as the IRGC-QF’s entire Palestinian office are also hit by UK travel bans and asset freezes.
In a separate statement, the US Treasury said that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the UK are jointly taking action against the IRGC-QF, Hamas and PIJ.
“Treasury applauds the United Kingdom’s new Iran sanctions authorities, which will be instrumental in taking action against Iranian support to Hamas and other regional proxy groups that fan conflict and contribute to widespread suffering,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo. “The United States continues to coordinate with our partners, including the United Kingdom, to tackle terrorist financing and threats from Iran.”
Seven of the actors targeted by the UK had previously been designated by OFAC.