In all six cases there are connections to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, classified as a terrorist organization, which carried out drone attacks on US targets and foreign ships or helped others, the US government said on Friday evening (local time). One of the consequences of the sanctions is that any property belonging to those affected will be frozen in the USA and no one will be allowed to do business with them there. “We are determined to counter all threatening activities by Iran and those who support them,” wrote Foreign Minister Antony Blinken on Twitter.
The Revolutionary Guards are the elite unit of the Iranian armed forces and far more important than the classic army. The US accuses them of supplying the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, the Islamists ruling Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the Houthi rebels in Yemen with drones. With this, Iran is jeopardizing “international peace and stability in the region”.