US Sanctions Khamenei’s Son and Several Associates
The US Department of Treasury sanctioned Mujtaba Khamenei and several others, including the chief of staff of Iran’s Supreme Leader. Other individuals including Velayati, international affairs advisor, and Vahid Haghanian, special deputy in the Supreme Leader’s office, have also been sanctioned.
The US Department of Treasury, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the occupation of the US Embassy in Tehran (November 4), sanctioned 9 individuals close to and appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, including his son Mujtaba.
According to Reuters news agency, Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, chief of the Supreme Leader’s office, and Vahid Haghanian, special deputy in the Supreme Leader’s office, are also on the sanctions list.
Other names appear on this list as well; including Ibrahim Raisi, appointed by Khamenei as head of the Judiciary, and Ali Akbar Velayati, international affairs advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader.
Mohammad Baqeri, chief of the armed forces general staff, Hossein Dehghan, former defense minister, Gholamali Rashid, commander of Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters, and Gholamali Haddad-Adel, former speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, are among other individuals on the US Treasury Department’s newly updated sanctions list.
Haddad-Adel is an advisor and close associate of Khamenei and father-in-law of Mujtaba, and like Velayati, is known for having multiple government positions, earning him the nickname “Jack of all trades.”
Steven Mnuchin, US Treasury Secretary, stated in a statement that the sanctioned individuals are close associates of Khamenei who, he said, play a role in implementing the Supreme Leader’s destabilizing policies.
Perpetrators of “Malicious Acts” by the Regime
According to the US Treasury Secretary, the actual individuals sanctioned in the list released on November 4 are appointed officials who have been involved in numerous “malicious acts” by the Islamic Republic, including the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 and the bombing of the Jewish community center (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires in 1994.
These individuals have also been accused of torture, unlawful killing, and suppression of Iranian citizens. Argentina’s judicial system believes the plan for the bombing of the Jewish center in Tehran was drawn up and carried out by a Hezbollah team led by Imad Mughniyeh.
Argentina’s Attorney General in early 2007 requested an international police arrest warrant for Imad Mughniyeh and eight Iranian officials, including Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Velayati, Ali Fallahian, former intelligence minister, and Mohsen Rezaei, former Revolutionary Guard commander.
Imad Mughniyeh, who was considered one of Hezbollah’s senior commanders and close to Islamic Republic officials, was killed in February 2008 in a bomb explosion in Damascus.
Khamenei and the “Epic of Imad Mughniyeh”
Iran’s Supreme Leader, in a message to Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader in Lebanon, attributed Imad Mughniyeh’s death to Israel and called his death an “epic that awakens nations and sets an example for youth.”
Imad Mughniyeh’s parents visited Khamenei in March 2013, and his daughter a year later. In September 2018, following Imad Mughniyeh’s mother’s death, a representative of the office for publishing the Supreme Leader’s works visited his family home in Beirut and gifted them a photo of the Supreme Leader with Imad Mughniyeh’s parents.
These can be considered signs of the high status of a man with the Supreme Leader who is accused of involvement in a number of bombings and terrorist operations, operations whose planning has been attributed to Tehran.
Source: DW
