February 21-2014
The US Treasury last week imposed sanctions on an Iran-based Uzbek national it said was using Iran to funnel money and fighters to an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria that is battling against Iran.
US officials said Iran knew full well that the Uzbek, Olimzhon Adkhamovich Sadikov, was working for Al-Qaeda, but it might not know that he was sending funds and fighters to the An-Nusrah Front in Syria. An-Nusrah is trying to destroy the Syrian government that Iran supports.
On the other hand, they said Iran might know that and tolerate such aid at a low level because it provides a conduit if Iran ever wishes to negotiate with An-Nusrah.
Iran has been known to provide limited aid to groups it opposes. For example, it provides limited arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan without wanting the virulently anti-Shia group to win. It presumably arms the Taliban so they can cause trouble for the United States.
The United States has for years accused Iran of allowing a small Al-Qaeda network to operate inside Iran, conducting fund-raising and moving Al-Qaeda operatives through Iran. The Al-Qaeda men are semi-prisoners in Iran. Captured documents showed that the late Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden assumed Iran kept those men in Iran as effective hostages to prevent Al-Qaeda from attacking Iranians or Iranian interests while allowing them to work from Iran to keep the door to Al-Qaeda open for Iran.
Treasury said the Uzbek is based in Mashhad.
He was one of 31 individuals and entities the United States sanctioned last week for violating US sanctions on Iran. Besides the Uzbek, they came from Turkey, Spain, Germany, Georgia, Afghanistan, the UAE and Liechtenstein as well as Iran.
One German and two German firms were sanctioned for helping Iran sell oil and evade sanctions. The announcement did not say how much oil the United States thought had been sold by that route.
Four companies and one Turk were sanctioned for helping the Pasdaran procure and reverse engineer a “fast boat,” presumably a reference to a unique and record-setting British speedboat that Iran got hold of a few years ago.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry complained that the US actions violated the “spirit” of the interim nuclear agreement, but it didn’t charge the Americans with violating the agreement. The United States has said repeatedly that it would enforce its sanctions against violators but would not create new kinds of sanctions, as it agreed to in the interim agreement.
