US Blacklists Iranian Entity Behind Bounty For Salman Rushdie
The US has blacklisted the Iranian organization that had issued a multi-million-dollar bounty for the killing of Indian-born British writer Salman Rushdie.
The US has blacklisted the Iranian organization that had issued a multi-million-dollar bounty for the killing of Indian-born British writer Salman Rushdie.
The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action Friday against the 15 Khordad Foundation, one of the organizations created in 1982 on orders of the Islamic Republic’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini with aim of promoting the revolutionary ideology, under the supervision of the Office of the Supreme Leader.
Since Khomeini’s edict pronouncing a death sentence on Rushdie in February 1989, the 15 Khordad Foundation committed millions of dollars to anyone willing to carry out the heinous act and as well as later raising the reward for targeting the author.
“The United States will not waver in its determination to stand up to threats posed by Iranian authorities against the universal rights of freedom of expression, freedom of religion or belief, and freedom of the press,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson, adding that “This act of violence, which has been praised by the Iranian regime, is appalling. We all hope for Salman Rushdie’s speedy recovery following the attack on his life.”
Rushdie, who was stabbed in August because of the death edict, has lost sight in one eye and use of a hand, his agent Andrew Wyle revealed earlier in the month.
He was stabbed repeatedly for 20 seconds by Hadi Matar -- a 24-year-old resident of New Jersey who appreciates Khomeini -- in August as he was about to deliver a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in New York state.
The Islamic Republic’s Intelligence Ministry and the Intelligence Organization of the Revolutionary Guard issued the statement on Friday, alleging that a mission called “Iran’s Destruction Project” that was earlier implemented in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Libya has ended in a “humiliating defeat” in Iran.
The joint statement has introduced Niloufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, twp women journalists arrested days after protests began in September, as “foreign agents.”
They say that Niloufar Hamedi, who published the photo of the deceased Mahsa Amini on a hospital bed, was “among the people trained in special courses abroad.” Amini’s death from severe head trauma in police custody triggered the current popular protests across the country. The unrest has been the longest sustained movement against the Islamic Republic.
“Using the cover of a journalist, she was one of the first people who arrived at the hospital and provoked the relatives of the deceased and published targeted news,” adds the statement.
The statement has offered no evidence about the two journalists having travelled abroad, received training or having any ties with foreign organizations.
The ominous statement came as several Iranian hardliners Friday signaled that the government will resort to more force to crush the popular protests.
The IRGC and the Intelligence Ministry have also accused Elahe Mohammadi, another journalist of working for foreign services saying that “she instantly attended the funeral ceremony of Mahsa Amini in her birthplace Saqqez to provoke her relatives by circulating the news and images of the funeral ceremony, and burial.”
The two intelligence bodies also claimed that Mohammadi is “trained by the American mafia regime in foreign countries,” adding that together with Niloufar Hamedi, Mohammadi has “played the role of primary sources of news for foreign media.”
In this statement the Iranian intelligence organizations accused Washington of allocating billions of dollars every year to find elements in Iran and connect them to “Western networks under the cover of human rights activities and promotion of democracy.”
The statement claims that after the downing of a Ukrainian plane over Tehran in January 2020 and the collapse of Abadan’s Metropol building “incidents”, US agents “urged their media to use every challenge and problem to provoke an inefficiency crisis [in Iran] and focus on the illegitimacy of the Iranian establishment.”
The IRGC and Intelligence Ministry say the United States tried “to attribute the effect of sanctions on people’s lives to the inefficiency of the Islamic Republic through making false demands in cultural and social fields.”
The statement further claims that in the past years, US and Israeli intelligence services have made extensive efforts to “transfer money and arm criminals with weapons to enable them to carry out sabotage operations against important centers and facilities, and use violence against the civilians, police forces and the Basij [militia].”
It also adds that “enemy’s” intelligence services try to influence teachers, workers, and students through “creation of fake syndicates and leaders” to “cause chaos” in the country.
The intelligence bodies further stated that “enemies” organized and implemented a “global media war” against Iran, through TV networks and social media.
It accuses Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram of “ignoring their own regulations” to pave the ground for the spread of “fake news.”
Referring to the measures taken by the US government to provide free satellite internet for the Iranian people, they said “The Starlink project is to expand America’s internet dictatorship!”
In the end, the statement has once again threatened the “enemies” saying that their “crimes in recent events will not be forgotten or forgiven.”
Miguel de Serpa Soares, head of UN legal affairs, told the UN Security Council Wednesday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres would “continue to prepare” reports on UNSC Resolution 2231.
France, the United Kingdom and the United States last week submitted a letter at the UN arguing any supply of drones by Iran to Russia would violate the resolution, which endorsed the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Wednesday the letter broke the UN Charter by seeking to influence the general secretary.
Antonio Guterres has reported twice a year, in June and December, on the implementation of Resolution 2231, including inspections of military parts found in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Ukraine, France, the UK and US argue that the resolution contains a provision banning Iran from exporting without prior UN approval certain military goods, including drones.
‘National security interests’
The alleged drone supply has also been highlighted this week in the US by Herzog, with Israel’s relations with Russia under the spotlight as Israel’s November 1 elections approach. Herzog pushed back Tuesday against Ukrainian demands from Ukraine for defense assistance, telling an event at the Atlantic Council “there are things we cannot supply due to national security interests.”
But while the Israeli government refuses to give military aid to Ukraine for fear of upsetting its relationship with Russia, the issue has lingered in Israeli politics since Diaspora Minister Nachman Shai tweeted October 16 in favor of sending support as there was “no longer any doubt where Israel should be in this bloody conflict.”
The Jerusalem Post Thursday hit back at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over his latest broadside, pointing out in an editorial that Iran “developed drones because it can’t build advanced warplanes…[had] exported drones all around the Middle East and targeted Israel for years, and that Ukraine… [had] not backed Israel in the past…” The Post added that rockets used by Hamas and Hezbollah “sometimes…have origins in Russian technology.”
The newspaper argued it took years to deploy and integrate air defense systems and that “it’s not clear even” that Israeli defenses were “appropriate for Kyiv.” Zelenskyy had told Haaretz newspaper that an Iran-Russia “alliance…would not have happened if your politicians had made one decision at a time.” The Ukrainian leader said appeals to Israel went back to 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea.
‘Co-existence and weakening extremists’
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu – who in 2019 adorned his Likud Party HQ with a huge picture of himself and Putin – told USA Today in an interview published October 21 that he hoped the Russian president would rethink “his vision of reconstituting a great Russian kingdom.”
Herzog’s meeting with President Joe Biden saw the US leader call for a ‘two-state solution’ in Israel-Palestine and welcome the maritime agreement due to be signed Thursday between Israel and Lebanon. The Times of Israel reported that US officials had raised concern over escalating violence in the West Bank, which has so far barely surfaced as an issue in the Israeli election.
A White House statement said the two leaders had “discussed the importance of promoting co-existence and weakening extremists who promote hatred and violence.” This year’s growing death toll in the West Bank has reportedly increased support there for Islamic Jihad, which has close links to Tehran.
Biden called the agreement with Lebanon “a historic breakthrough” that took “some real guts…and persistent diplomacy.” Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Tehran-allied Hezbollah, said in early October his party would respect the agreement, which could allow both countries to benefit from offshore gas deposits but which does not cover the land border.
