🔶Australia extends anti-terror sanctions against four Iranians

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) once again added 15 individuals and two entities to its list of anti-terror financial sanctions. The decision was announced on October 3 (11 Mehr) on the ministry’s official website. Among those whose listings were extended are four Iranians whom the Australian government has associated, since 2011, with a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in the United States.

Hamed Abdollahi, Mansour Erbab-e Sir, Abdolreza Shehlai, and Ali Gholam Shakouri were added to a blacklist in November 2011, following accusations of involvement in the plot to assassinate the then Saudi ambassador in Washington. Then–foreign minister Julie Bishop described these same individuals in 2014 as “Iranian suspects of terrorism.”

According to the UK and Canada lists, Abdollahi, Shehlai, and Shakouri are officials of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Erbab-e Sir was born in Iran and has U.S. citizenship. This year’s notice provides no explanation about these four people and only includes their names in the list.