US, Allies Warn Iran To Comply With Nuclear Obligations

The US Treasury Department said the Iranian drones made by the company were being used by Moscow to attack Ukraine's critical infrastructure.

In a statement, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced it has designated eight senior executives of Paravar Pars.

"Iranian entities continue to produce UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) for Iran's IRGC and military. More broadly, Iran is supplying UAVs for Russia's combat operations to target critical infrastructure in Ukraine," said Brian Nelson, the US Treasury's top sanctions official.

The drone maker was previously sanctioned by the United States and the European Union for making drones for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force.

The name of Alireza Tangsiri, the Commander of the IRGC Navy, could be seen in the list of targeted people.

The forward base ship IRIS MAKRAN (MAKRAN), an oil tanker that was repurposed for naval operations and maintains UAV launch capabilities, as well as the naval frigate IRIS DENA (DENA) are included in the list.

As a result of Friday's action, all property and interests in property of those individuals that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons must be blocked and reported to OFAC, the Treasury Department noted.

People that engage in transactions with the individuals designated on Friday may themselves be exposed to sanctions, the department added.

After a dinner meeting in the Elysee Palace with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, Macron called for “firmness in the face of Iran’s headlong rush, which if continued would inevitably have consequences.”

The French president also noted “that Iranian support for Russian aggression in Ukraine exposes Iran to sanctions and increasing isolation,” while Netanyahu said Israel is considering sending military aid to Ukraine, which seems Israel plans to drop its more neutral stance over the conflict in the hope of securing a more anti-Iran Western position towards Tehran.

While Macron met Netanyahu in Paris, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna flew to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. France is a major arms supplier to both countries, with Riyadh becoming the biggest purchaser of French weapons in 2020.

Macron also mediated a regional summit in Jordan in December about the future of Iraq.

France is an important power in the eastern Mediterranean, where it maintains a significant naval and aerial presence and enjoys an historic role in Lebanon.

Before the Israeli premier took off for Paris earlier Thursday for his first meeting with Macron since he returned to power late last year, Netanyahu said the focus of his conversations with Macron would be “our joint efforts to stop Iran’s aggression and its drive toward a nuclear weapon.”

France agrees that "firmness" is needed in dealings with Iran, a diplomatic source told AFP, calling its nuclear program "dangerous" and highlighting its role in the Ukraine war.

In the wake of a bloody crackdown on antigovernment protesters in Iran, Britain and the European Union began considering proscribing the Islamic Republic’s leading military, intelligence and internal security juggernaut.

The Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) has also been linked to acts of terror abroad, including threats against Iran International’s journalists working in London. The network’s headquarters in Chiswick came under Metropolitan Police protection in November when threats became serious.

The Times says that while home secretary Suella Braverman and security minister Tom Tugendhat support sanctioning the IRGC, according to sources the Foreign Office has blocked the move, “citing the need to keep communication channels open,” with Iran.

The report added that the Home Office is hopeful that “proscription will eventually progress but it is expected to be delayed by weeks if not months.”

The West’s relations with the Islamic have also soured for a lack of a nuclear agreement after almost two years of talks and Iran’s move to supply Russia with killer drones used against Ukraine.

In a separate ‘Leading Article’ The Times called for listing of the IRGC as a terror organization, saying not doing so would hardly change Tehran’s behavior and policies.

“Yet it is surely time to abandon the illusion that anything useful can be obtained though diplomatic engagement with Tehran. The theocratic regime has long since abandoned any restraint as it clings to power,” The Times said.

Iranian state media quoted Mohammad Eslami, the chief the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, on Wednesday saying the IAEA report was “incorrect” and “disappointing”.

Claiming that the agency's reports "about no country except Iran are immediately published in the media", Eslami added "The agency inspector's take after his visit to Fordow was incorrect, but he immediately reported it to the agency."

The UN nuclear watchdog criticized Iran on Wednesday for making an undeclared change to two clusters of advanced machines enriching uranium to up to 60% purity.

The International Atomic Energy Agency found that the interconnection between the two clusters of centrifuges changed during an unannounced inspection on January 21 at the Fordow Fuel enrichment Plant (FFEP), a site dug into a mountain where inspectors are stepping up checks after Iran said it would dramatically expand enrichment.

In a public statement summarizing that confidential report, the IAEA said its chief Rafael Grossi "is concerned that Iran implemented a substantial change in the design information of FFEP in relation to the production of high-enriched uranium without informing the Agency in advance."

"This is inconsistent with Iran's obligations under its Safeguards Agreement and undermines the Agency’s ability to adjust the safeguards approach for FFEP and implement effective safeguards measures at this facility."

In a 128-page report on the current protests across Iran condemning institutionalized oppression of women and the Islamic Republic’s brutal response to quell the uprising, the senate decried the use of live ammunition and indiscriminate force by security agents against civilians. 

The Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade References Committee, which issued the report, urged the Australian Government to be unequivocal in its response to violence and human rights abuses in Iran, adding that “whilst Iran’s future must ultimately be written by the people of Iran in its own streets, the protection of human rights is a moral obligation and a practical necessity for us all.”

The committee, reporting on behalf of the senate, said that “evidence presented to the committee painfully illustrates the wholesale maltreatment of a nation by the very authorities whose job it is supposed to be to safeguard and protect the Iranian population.” 

“Hundreds have been killed and many thousands wounded. Tens of thousands have been arrested. A number have been sentenced to death—some already executed—without access to a fair trial. Confessions are extracted through torture. Adults and children are subjected to horrific physical and sexual abuse in prison,” read part of the report, titled “Human rights implications of recent violence in Iran.”

Having studied a very large sample of submitted reports and evidence, the report made a series of recommendations designed to hold accountable a regime for abusing its own people, and reduce the Islamic Republic’s ability to violate human rights without consequence. 

The committee recommended that the Australian Government take the necessary steps to formally categorize the IRGC as an organization involved in supporting and facilitating terrorism, also calling for the use of sanctions to target Islamic Republic and IRGC-affiliated individuals and entities responsible for malicious cyber activity against Australia.

It also urged the government “to use the available Magnitsky legislation to expand the list of individuals and entities subject to sanctions in response to human rights abuses in Iran, with particular focus on senior officials responsible for violence, human rights abuses, arbitrary detention and executions without due process.”

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The document also called on Canberra to oppose the election of the Islamic Republic to United Nations’ bodies in light of the regime’s clear disregard for human rights, it said, particularly the rights of women and girls. 

The senate also expressed concerns about credible allegations of intimidation and threats against Australian citizens, residents and their families, urging the responsible government ministers to provide an update to the Parliament and the Australian public on the government’s current assessment of whether persons connected to the regime are undertaking such behavior in Australia.

The committee also recommended that Australia should minimize relations with the Islamic Republic to “the greatest extent possible in recognition of the appalling behavior of the regime,” adding that the government should increase transparency and better inform the public about the status of its diplomatic relations with Tehran, as well as the security concerns in relation to the regime’s behavior relating to cybercrime, hostage diplomacy and threats to Australian residents.

“Implementing the committee’s recommendations would place Australia more firmly in the community of nations which have heard the Iranian people cry: Enough,” read the report, acknowledging that “Australia lagged well behind many of our partner Western democracies in taking action to send a clear unambivalent message to the Iranian regime that what they are doing is grossly unacceptable.”

The West has stepped up pressure on Iran over its crackdown on protests and arms supply for the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the US, European Union and United Kingdom imposed fresh sanctions on Tehran.

Earlier in the day, US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley said that “all corners of the Biden Administration have worked urgently and powerfully to mobilize the international community and confront the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses.”

On Tuesday, US lawmaker Representative Claudia Tenney (Rep-NY) reiterated, “We must impose the strictest sanctions possible on the leaders of the murderous Iranian regime, which is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.”