2020 US election: US imposes sanctions on Iran for poll meddling

The US has slapped new sanctions on five Iranian entities for what it called “brazen attempts” to interfere with the US election.

John Ratcliffe fingered Iran as behind emails addressed to US voters threatening them to support Donald Trump. Picture: AFP

The US has slapped new sanctions on five ­Iranian entities for what it called “brazen attempts” to interfere with the US election.

Stepping up pressure after US intelligence pointed the finger at both Iran and Russia, the Treasury Department accused the Iranian groups of seeking to spread disinformation and division ahead of the November 3 vote.

Tehran responded on Friday night by imposing sanctions on the US ambassador to Iraq, Matthew Tueller, citing “terrorist” acts against its interests.

The US imposed the fresh sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC-Quds Force, the Bayan Rasaneh Gostar Institute, the Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union and International Union of Virtual Media. The groups have worked to “sow discord among the voting populace by spreading disinformation online and executing malign influence operations aimed at misleading US voters”, the Treasury said.

Bayan Gostar, which the Treasury called an IRGC-Quds Force “front company” for propaganda, took the lead in the activities, it said. Ahead of the election, “Bayan Gostar personnel have planned to influence the election by exploiting social issues within the United States, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and denigrating US political figures,” it said.

“As recently as summer 2020, Bayan Gostar was prepared to execute a series of influence operations directed at the US populace ahead of the presidential election.”

The two media groups were part of that operation, it said.

The sanctions, which forbid Americans and US entities from doing business with the Iranian groups, will probably have little impact, as the IRGC and IRGC-Quds Force are already subject to other sweeping sanctions.

The announcement came one day after the US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe fingered Iran as behind emails addressed to US voters threatening them to support President Donald Trump and his Republican Party.

The emails appeared to have been sent by a right-wing US militia group, the Proud Boys, but Mr Ratcliffe said Iran was behind them.

Iran summoned the ambassador of Switzerland, who represents US interests in Tehran in the absence of diplomatic relations, to deny the “fabricated and clumsy” allegations.

AFP