Qatar says regional efforts underway to ease Iran tensions

“The Australian Government is today imposing further targeted financial sanctions on Iran in response to the regime’s horrific use of violence against its own people,” read a government media release on Tuesday.

The Australian government said those sanctioned include senior IRGC officials and entities that violently suppress domestic protests and threaten lives inside and outside Iran.

Among those named are Iran’s national police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan, who has been a central figure in directing street-level repression, mass arrests and the use of force against protesters.

Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib was also on the list. He oversees the security and intelligence apparatus responsible for surveillance, detentions and interrogations of activists and dissidents.

Ali Fazli, a senior IRGC commander and former Basij chief, who has long been associated with suppressing protests and coordinating paramilitary forces against demonstrators, was also sanctioned by Canberra.

Other notable names on the list included Mohammad Reza Fallahzadeh, a senior commander in the IRGC’s Quds Force, Mohammad Saleh Jokar, a former commander of student Basij forces, and Yahya Hosseini Panjaki, the intelligence ministry's deputy for domestic security.

Canberra’s sanctions also targeted the IRGC Cyber Defense Command, involved in online surveillance and information control; IRGC Quds Force Unit 840, a covert unit accused of planning operations against dissidents and foreign targets; and the IRGC Intelligence Organization, which oversees domestic intelligence, arrests and interrogations and plays a central role in suppressing protests inside Iran.

The Australian government said the new measures build on earlier step of listing the IRGC as a state sponsor of terrorism and its existing sanctions framework on Iran.

Australia officially designated IRGC as a state sponsor of terrorism in November after intelligence linked the group to attacks on Jewish centers in Sydney and Melbourne.

The Guards, who have been designated a terrorist organization by the United States since 2019, were also put on the EU’s terrorist list in late January.

The Albanese government has so far sanctioned more than 200 Iranian individuals and entities, including more than 100 linked to the IRGC.

Iranian police have arrested 139 foreign nationals in the central province of Yazd over their involvement in recent protests, Guards-linked Tasnim reported on Tuesday.

“During the review of recent unrest cases, it was determined that 139 of those detained were foreign nationals,” said Ahmad Negahban, the provincial police chief.

Negahban said the detainees “played an active role in organizing, inciting and directing riotous actions” and that in some cases they were in contact with networks outside Iran. Authorities did not identify the detainees or say where they were from.

Iran’s police chief warned the United States on Tuesday against any attack, saying Iran’s forces were ready and would respond firmly to any "misstep".

“If the enemies make an error, they will regret it,” Ahmad Reza Radan said, according to state media.

Radan said Iran’s border forces were operating from a position of strength and were fully prepared, drawing on experience from past conflicts and security operations.

Talks between Iran and the United States in Istanbul this week aim to avoid conflict and de-escalate tensions, a regional official told Reuters on Tuesday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several regional powers had also been invited, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

The official said the format of the meetings remained unclear but that the main meeting was expected on Friday, adding that starting dialogue was key to preventing further escalation.

France said ending Iran’s crackdown on its own people must come before any broader diplomacy, while reaffirming pressure on Tehran and support for talks on security issues, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Tuesday.

“The priority is first to put an end to this repression,” Barrot said in an interview on franceinfo. He said Iran must “free prisoners, restore communications and give freedom back to the Iranian people.”

Barrot said France did not seek to impose regime change from outside but was applying “maximum pressure” through sanctions so that “the Iranian people can take back control of their future,” comments he also made in an interview with La Dépêche du Midi.

He said Paris had sanctioned Iranian officials over missile transfers to Russia, what he called a policy of state hostage-taking, and the crackdown on protests, and backed listing Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. “There cannot be impunity after mass crimes,” he said.

Barrot said France supported efforts by mediating countries to bring the United States and Iran to talks in Istanbul, adding that discussions should also address Iran’s nuclear program, missiles and support for armed groups in the region.