US, UK Sanction Iran Over Plot to Kill Iran International Journalists

The US and UK have announced a sanctions package against a network involved in assassination plots targeting dissidents and including Iran International journalists.

The UK sanctions hit Iranian officials involved in threats to kill Iran International TV journalists on British soil. Sanctions were also imposed on members of organized criminal gangs who collaborate with the regime, “which seeks to export repression, harassment and coercion against journalists and human rights defenders,” according to a statement by the British government.

“The Iranian officials designated are members of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Unit 840, which was exposed in an ITV investigation into plots to assassinate two television presenters of Iran International news on UK soil,” read the statement, referring to the latest credible reporting of the regime’s attempt to intimidate or kill British nationals or UK-linked individuals, with at least 15 such threats taking place since January 2022.

Mohammad Reza Ansari, an IRGC-Quds Force official, and Muhammed Abd al-Razek Kanafani were named in the ITV News report as coordinators of the plot to assassinate Iran International journalists. Ansari was previously designated by the US. He is the ‘mastermind’ behind failed plots to assassinate former US officials Mike Pompeo and John Bolton.

UK’s ITV revealed that the IRGC was plotting to assassinate two Iran International television anchors in London in 2022 amid Iranian anti-government protests. Iranian spies offered a people-smuggler $200,000 to target the network's headquarters in London with a car bomb. In November 2022, Volant Media, the parent company of Iran International, also announced that two of its journalists had been notified of direct threats. In December, the Central Criminal Court of England also sentenced a man arrested for gathering information on Iran International's London headquarters to 3.5 years behind bars.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said, “The Iranian regime and the criminal gangs who operate on its behalf pose an unacceptable threat to the UK’s security. Today’s package exposes the roles of the Iranian officials and gangs involved in activity aimed to undermine, silence and disrupt the democratic freedoms we value in the UK."

The criminal gang targeted in the new sanctions package is led by Iranian narcotics trafficker Naji Ibrahim (Ebrahim) Sharifi-Zindashti and directed by Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), the US Treasury said. It added that Zindashti’s network has carried out assassinations and kidnappings across a number of jurisdictions, aiming to silence Tehran's perceived critics.

The MOIS and the IRGC have extensively pursued perceived regime opponents through transnational repression outside of Iran. The practice has intensified in recent years, targeting dissidents, journalists, activists, and former Iranian officials for assassination, kidnapping, and hacking operations across multiple countries in the Middle East, Europe, and North America.

Zindashti, has cooperated with the MOIS in various plots, including the abduction and execution of regime dissidents such as Habib Chaab, Saeed Karimian and Masoud Molavi-Vardanjani.

In 2020, as part of an MOIS-sponsored operation, Chaab -- a leader of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA) -- was abducted by Zindashti’s men in Turkey. Chaab was then smuggled into Iran where he was imprisoned, tortured, forced to confess under duress, and ultimately convicted following a trial without due process of law. He was executed in May 2023.

In 2019, the MOIS used Zindashti and his men to assassinate former Iranian cybersecurity official turned regime critic Masud Vardanjani in Istanbul. Vardanjani, who was outspoken in his condemnation of the Iranian regime, publicly disclosed documents exposing financial corruption and assassinations by the regime via his Telegram channel.

Also in 2017, British-Iranian dissident Saeed Karimian, who owned GEM TV network and used it to broadcast content critical of the Iranian regime, was shot and killed in Istanbul along with Kuwaiti businessman Muhammad Mer Almuntari. Zindashti was later discovered to be behind the double murder.

“The Iranian regime’s continued efforts to target dissidents and activists demonstrate the regime’s deep insecurity and attempt to expand Iran’s domestic repression internationally,” said US Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian E. Nelson.