WASHINGTON – The US Treasury and allies in the Gulf took aim at Iran´ssupport for the Taliban Tuesday with new sanctions against nine individualsfrom both countries.
The Riyadh-based Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) said thesanctions aimed to “expose and disrupt Taliban actors and their Iraniansponsors that seek to undermine the security of the Afghan Government.”
The list included two Iranian Revolutionary Guard officials identified asMohammad Ebrahim Owhadi and Esma´il Razavi.
According to a TFTC statement, the two were involved in providing training,financial and logistical support to the Taliban.
It said Owhadi arranged a deal in 2017 with a top Taliban official inAghanistan´s Herat Province in which the Revolutionary Guard would providemilitary and financial support to the Taliban in return for them attackinggovernment forces in Herat.
Razavi provided similar support to other Taliban groups across theIran-Afghanistan border, the statement said.
Also named were the Taliban´s deputy shadow governor for Herat, AbdullahSamad Faroqui; Mohammad Daoud Muzzamil, who holds the same position inHelmand province, Naim Barich, who manages Taliban-Iran relations, andthree other senior Taliban officials.
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The blacklist also included Abdul Aziz, accused of paying the Taliban forprotection for his narcotics trafficking and gemstones businesses.
“Iran´s provision of military training, financing, and weapons to theTaliban is yet another example of Tehran´s blatant regional meddling andsupport for terrorism,” said US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
“The United States and our partners will not tolerate the Iranian regimeexploiting Afghanistan to further their destabilizing behavior,” he said inthe statement.
The sanctions were announced during TFTC meeting in Riyadh. Some of thosementioned were already on US and UN sanctions lists.
The TFTC was launched in May 2017 and includes the US, Saudi Arabia,Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. – APP/AFP
