The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on four individuals in Iran for aiding the Bahrain-based, U.S.-designated terrorist group al-Ashtar Brigades, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
Manama City, Bahrain © Mena Today
The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on four individuals in Iran for aiding the Bahrain-based, U.S.-designated terrorist group al-Ashtar Brigades, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
CONTEXT
The sanctions were imposed in coordination with Bahrain's government and allege that the targeted individuals "materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of" al-Ashtar Brigades.
KEY QUOTES
The U.S. action "underscores our collective commitment to disrupting Iran's destabilizing forces and threats, particularly those which threaten our partners in the region and around the world," Brian Nelson, U.S. under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.
WHY IT MATTERS
The United States has been taking action against Iran-backed groups in the Middle East to reduce Tehran's influence in the region and to isolate its affiliates. It designated al-Ashtar Brigades a foreign terrorist organization in 2018.
In recent weeks, Washington and Tehran have also been at odds over the conflict in Gaza and its implications in the region with Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen disrupting commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the U.S. carrying out strikes against them.
Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Paul Grant in Washington and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi militants fired on Saudi oil installations in two ports on the Red Sea coast on Saturday, but the United States held back from launching air strikes on Iran itself for the first night in two weeks.
Yemen is edging towards the resumption of a more than decade-old frozen conflict, Yemeni officials, Western diplomats and analysts say, as attacks on Saudi infrastructure and shipping by Iran-aligned Houthis test the patience of the kingdom and the Yemeni government forces it backs.
Iran launched fresh strikes across the region on Friday, retaliating after another night of US bombardment on its territory, claiming attacks on facilities used by American forces in Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait.
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