KATHMANDU: The United States seized 33 websites used by the Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU) and 3 other websites operated by Kata’ib Hizballah (KH) last week. All the websites were subject to US sanctions.
The seizures followed the election victory of Islamist hardliner Ebrahim Raisi as Iranian President on June 19.
The seizures were in accordance with court orders as US companies owned the domains, said a statement issued by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) on June 22. According to the statement, Iranian government components, including IRTVU and others, used the websites in disguise of news organizations or media outlets to target the US with disinformation campaigns and malign influence operations.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on October 22, 2020, designated IRTVU as a Specially Designated National (SDN) controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC). SDNs are prohibited from obtaining services in the US without an OFAC license. IRTVU did not obtain a license from OFAC prior to utilizing the domain names, said the statement. Likewise, OFAC designated KH an SDN, and the Department of State designated it a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2009.
As per the statement, KH, an Iraqi terrorist organization, with IRGS’s support, targeted and killed coalition and Iraqi Security Force. The National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section prosecuted the seizure and was further investigating the matter.
Iran’s well-known English-language service Press TV is among the seized sites. Other sites running under the domains mostly catered to Yemeni Houthis, Palestinians, Iranians, Islamist hardliners and terrorist organizations.
Last October, the DoJ announced it had taken down nearly 100 websites linked to Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard for waging a “global disinformation campaign” to influence US policy and push Iranian propaganda around the world.
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