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IRAN-US-DIPLOMACY-SANCTIONS
Iran blacklists US-based think-tank: ministry
TEHRAN, Aug 25, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Iran has blacklisted US-based think-tank
the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and its chief Mark Dubowitz on
accusations of being behind “economic terrorism” against the Islamic
republic.
The Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement issued late Saturday that
it had “added the so-called Foundation for Defence of Democracies (FDD) and
its director to the sanctions list”.
“The American institution with the deceitful name” and Dubowitz were
accused of being involved in “designing, imposing and intensifying the
impacts of economic terrorism against Iran,” it said.
The FDD and Dubowitz were blamed for “seriously and actively trying to
harm the Iranian people’s security and vital interests,” according to the
English-language statement posted on the ministry’s website.
They were accused of doing so through “fabricating and spreading lies,
encouraging, providing consultations, lobbying, and launching a smear
campaign” against Iran.
As a result, they would be “subject to legal consequences”, it said.
The move would be “without prejudice to any further legal measures that
the other administrative, judicial or security institutions and organisations
may take” against them and their “collaborators and accomplices”.
The FDD describes itself as a Washington-based “non-partisan research
institute focusing on national security and foreign policy”.
It strongly opposed the 2015 deal that saw world powers lift sanctions
against Iran in return for limits on its nuclear programme.
Tensions between arch-foes Iran and the United States have escalated since
President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the accord last year
and began reimposing sanctions against the Islamic republic.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1149 hrs