US Issues New Sanctions Against Iran—for Death of Former FBI Agent and Cover-up
Tuesday’s sanctions mark the fifth round of punitive economic measures issued against Iran since Donald Trump’s second term began two months ago.
WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) - The U.S. announced a new round of sanctions on Iran on Tuesday for the roles played by senior figures within its Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) in the death of former FBI agent Robert Levinson and then covering it up.
Tuesday’s sanctions mark the fifth round of punitive economic measures issued against Iran since Donald Trump’s second term began two months ago.
Read More: US Imposes Fourth Round of Sanctions against Iran Oil Exports
The repeated measures are part of Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, even as Iran has said that it will not engage in direct talks with the U.S. under such circumstances.
Read More: Iran’s Araghchi: Tehran to Respond to Trump’s Letter Soon, Rules Out Direct Talks Under Pressure
Nonetheless, the Trump administration likely sees advantages in limiting Iran’s oil income, even if the sanctions do not lead to negotiations.
Levinson’s Presumed Death and Cover-up—Sanctioned MOIS Officers
In 1998, Levinson resigned from the FBI and took up a second career as a private investigator. In 2007, while performing work for the CIA on Iran’s Kish Island, he disappeared, seized by Iranian security forces.
Levinson was last seen alive in 2011, but he was not in good health, and he is presumed to have died, while in the custody of Iranian officials.
In early 2020, during Trump’s first term, Levinson’s family was advised by the U.S. government to declare that he was presumed dead. Their declaration was followed later that year by the first U.S. sanctions linked to his death.
At that time, two MOIS members were sanctioned, as discussed below. On Tuesday, the total was raised to five, as another three MOIS members were designated for sanctions.
Among those named on Tuesday is Gholamhossein Mohammadnia. Mohammadnia “has been a senior MOIS deputy who became the Iranian ambassador to Albania in 2016,” the Treasury Department announcement of the new sanctions said.
Mohammadnia “was expelled from Albania in December 2018 for ‘damaging national security,’” it continued, without providing any details.
However, contemporary reporting suggests there was a terrorist connection. “U.S. officials praised the decision and said it sent a clear message that conducting ‘terrorist operations in Europe’ was unacceptable,” the BBC said then.
A second man was arrested along with Mohammadnia, with the detentions occurring during Trump’s first term.
“Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made clear that the men were implicated in plotting ‘terrorist attacks,’ while President Donald Trump wrote a letter congratulating Albania’s prime minister,” the BBC report continued..
Tuesday’s Treasury Department announcement said that Mohammadnia had “led an effort to blame Mr. Levinson’s detention on a terrorist group in Pakistan’s Baluchistan region in order to shift blame away from the Iranian government.”
The Baluch are a Sunni Muslim people whose territory—Baluchistan—largely straddles the Iranian-Pakistani border. The Baluch have long opposed the Shi’ite government in Tehran, going back to the days of the Shah and even earlier.
Reza Amiri Moghadam is the second senior MOIS official sanctioned on Tuesday. He uses a second name, Ahmad Amirinia, and “has been a head of MOIS’s operations unit, with MOIS agents in Europe at one point reporting to him in Tehran,” the Treasury Department said. Currently, he is Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan.
The third figure sanctioned on Tuesday is Taqi Daneshvar, an “MOIS officer who oversaw the work” of Mohammad Baseri at the time that Levinson disappeared from Kish Island.
“Baseri, a high-ranking MOIS officer involved in counterespionage activities, was involved in the abduction, detention, and probable death of Mr. Levinson,” the Treasury Department said.
Baseri was one of the two MOIS officers sanctioned in 2020, during the first Trump administration. The other was Ahmad Kazai, apparently the more senior figure, as he is some 12 years older than Baseri. However, publicly available information about him is very limited.