WASHINGTON: The US on Thursday announced sanctions against shipping companies for transporting Iranian oil, saying it was a response to Tehran’s nuclear “escalation,” on the eve of presidential elections in the Islamic republic.
“Over the past month, Iran has announced steps to further expand its nuclear program in ways that have no credible peaceful purpose,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
He said the United States was imposing the sanctions “in response to these continued nuclear escalations,” saying, “We remain committed to never letting Iran obtain a nuclear weapon, and we are prepared to use all elements of national power to ensure that outcome.”
The State Department announced sanctions on three shipping companies for allegedly transporting Iranian oil as well as 11 associated vessels.
The sanctions block any assets of the companies in the US and criminalize US transactions with them.
The United States already has a sweeping unilateral ban on other countries buying Iranian oil, imposed by former president Donald Trump when he withdrew from a nuclear deal.
President Joe Biden’s administration initially said it would restore the 2015 deal but gave up after exhaustive negotiations with Tehran, major protests inside Iran and, more recently, tension over Iran’s support for Palestinian militants Hamas.
The UN nuclear watchdog said earlier this month that Iran is further expanding its nuclear capacities, with Tehran informing the agency that it was installing more cascades at enrichment facilities.
Iran’s cleric-led government denies seeking a nuclear weapon. Iran on Friday holds elections for president after conservative Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash.
US targets petrol tankers over Iran nuclear ‘escalation’
https://arab.news/ng7zk
US targets petrol tankers over Iran nuclear ‘escalation’
Over 2,200 Daesh detainees transferred to Iraq from Syria: Iraqi official
- Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the terrorists
BAGHDAD: Iraq has so far received 2,225 Daesh group detainees, whom the US military began transferring from Syria last month, an Iraqi official told AFP on Saturday.
They are among up to 7,000 Daesh detainees whose transfer from Syria to Iraq the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced last month, in a move it said was aimed at “ensuring that the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities.”
Previously, they had been held in prisons and camps administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.
The announcement of the transfer plan last month came after US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declared that the SDF’s role in confronting Daesh had come to an end.
Saad Maan, head of the security information cell attached to the Iraqi prime minister’s office, told AFP on Saturday that “Iraq has received 2,225 terrorists from the Syrian side by land and air, in coordination with the international coalition,” which Washington has led since 2014 to fight Daesh.
He said they are being held in “strict, regular detention centers.”
A Kurdish military source confirmed to AFP the “continued transfer of Daesh detainees from Syria to Iraq under the protection of the international coalition,” using another name for Daesh.
On Saturday, an AFP photographer near the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria saw a US military convoy and 11 buses with tinted windows.
- Iraq calls for repatriation -
Daesh seized swathes of northern and western Iraq starting in 2014, until Iraqi forces, backed by the international coalition, managed to defeat it in 2017.
Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the terrorists.
In recent years, Iraqi courts have issued death and life sentences against those convicted of terrorism offenses.
Thousands of Iraqis and foreign nationals convicted of membership in the group are incarcerated in Iraqi prisons.
On Monday, the Iraqi judiciary announced it had begun investigative procedures involving 1,387 detainees it received as part of the US military’s operation.
In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency on Saturday, Maan said “the established principle is to try all those involved in crimes against Iraqis and those belonging to the terrorist Daesh organization before the competent Iraqi courts.”
Among the detainees being transferred to Iraq are Syrians, Iraqis, Europeans and holders of other nationalities, according to Iraqi security sources.
Iraq is calling on the concerned countries to repatriate their citizens and ensure their prosecution.
Maan noted that “the process of handing over the terrorists to their countries will begin once the legal requirements are completed.”
