IRGC operatives blacklisted for international terror, assassination plots

The United States on Thursday (June 1) sanctioned members and affiliates of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the IRGC Quds Force (IRGC-QF) for their participation in terrorist and assassination plots.

The plots have targeted former US government officials, dual US-Iranian nationals and Iranian dissidents, the US Treasury said.

Thursday's sanctions target three Iran-and Türkiye-based individuals, a company affiliated with the IRGC-QF and two senior officials of the IRGC Intelligence Organisation.

The new designations include longtime IRGC-QF official Mohammad-Reza Ansari, who has supported the Quds Force's operations in Syria.

Ansari, with the support of Shahram Poursafi, an Iranian citizen, planned and attempted to assassinate two former US government officials, the Treasury said.

Poursafi also was involved in IRGC-QF's planning and surveillance operations in the Caucasus region. He was indicted in absentia by the US Department of Justice on August 10, and is still at large.

Also blacklisted Thursday is Hossein Hafez-Amini, a dual Iranian-Turkish national based in Türkiye, who operates as part of an IRGC-QF network in Türkiye.

Hafez-Amini uses his connections in the aviation industry and his Türkiye-based airline, Rey Havacilik Ithalat Ihracat Sanayi Ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi (Rey Airlines), to assist IRGC-QF covert operations, the Treasury said.

These include kidnapping and assassination plots targeting Iranian dissidents in Türkiye.

Amini also has leveraged his Türkiye-based network to support the IRGC-QF through aircraft charters and smuggling operations.

Amini and Rey Airlines previously transferred aircraft to Iran's Pouya Air, an IRGC-affiliated airline. The United States sanctioned Pouya Air in March 2012 for acting for or on behalf of the IRGC-QF.

Also sanctioned Thursday is former IRGC Intelligence Organisation counterespionage department chief Rouhollah Bazghandi, for his involvement in planning and overseeing IRGC Intelligence Organisation operations in Iraq and Syria and lethal operations against Israeli nationals.

Bazghandi has been involved in plots to assassinate journalists and Israeli nationals in Istanbul, the US Treasury said.

IRGC Intelligence Organisation foreign intelligence chief Reza Seraj, also designated Thursday, has been involved in failed IRGC Intelligence Organisation operations in Asia and in intelligence operations targeting US citizens, it added.

Seraj previously led the IRGC Intelligence Organisation Special Operations Division, where he was responsible for a series of failed operations targeting Israeli nationals.

'Acts of violence and intimidation'

"The United States remains focused on disrupting plots by the IRGC and its Quds Force, both of which have engaged in numerous assassination attempts and other acts of violence and intimidation against those they deem enemies of the Iranian regime," said Treasury official Brian E. Nelson.

"We will continue to expose and disrupt these terrorist activities and efforts to silence opposing voices, particularly those who advocate for respect for the universal human rights and freedoms of the Iranian people," he said.

The US Treasury has regularly acted to address the IRGC-QF's overseas terrorist plots, blacklisting individuals responsible for a plot to assassinate the ambassador of Saudi Arabia in the United States in 2011.

It sanctioned an individual involved in the IRGC-QF's efforts to plan and execute operations in the Middle East and the United States in December 2020.

In September 2021, it sanctioned Iranian intelligence operatives who targeted a US citizen in the United States and Iranian dissidents in other countries.

The Iranian regime has pursued and killed its opponents -- politicians, journalists and artists -- in other countries since the 1990s, an Iran-based analyst who wished to remain unnamed told Al-Mashareq.

"The Islamic Republic has engaged in plotting against its critics and seems to have become even more active in this regard in the past years, out of a clear fear of dissent," he added.

Iranian dissidents targeted

In July 2021, four Iranians were charged in a New York City federal court with conspiring to kidnap an Iranian-American journalist. She was not identified by prosecutors but confirmed she was the intended target.

Other dissidents like that journalist, who have been critical of the Iranian regime, have been the target of threats, intimidation and attacks on their lives in recent years.

On December 12, 2020, Iranian dissident Rouhollah Zam, who was lured to Iran by IRGC elements, was hanged in Tehran, sparking international condemnation.

Colleagues and friends of Zam in France said he had made the mistake of being lured into a trip to Iraq in October 2019.

The United States designated the IRGC as a terror group in 2019.

Iranian dissidents and activists across Europe have called on authorities to do likewise and designate the IRGC as a terror group. The protests have taken place in tandem with the anti-regime protests in Iran.

The Iranian regime has committed some 360 murders outside Iran since 1978, according to a US State Department report published in May 2020.

These murders have taken place in 40 countries, "mainly by way of the IRGC's overseas arm (the Quds Force), the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Intelligence, or by proxy groups such as the Lebanese Hizbullah", it said.

Almost all of the Iranian regime's victims have been dissidents or members of the opposition.