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Australia Sanctions Iran’s Revolutionary Guards For Threatening Regional Stability

Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles (left) and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong during a meeting in Melbourne (AP)
Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles (left) and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong during a meeting in Melbourne (AP)
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Australia Sanctions Iran’s Revolutionary Guards For Threatening Regional Stability

Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles (left) and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong during a meeting in Melbourne (AP)
Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles (left) and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong during a meeting in Melbourne (AP)

The Australian government on Tuesday said it is imposing new targeted sanctions on five Iranian individuals and three entities, in response to Iran’s destabilizing behavior in the Middle East.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that the senior officials sanctioned include Iran’s Defense Minister, Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, and the Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Qods Force, Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, in addition to the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard's contracting arm, Khatam al-Anbiya, Brigadier General Abdol Reza Abed.
The list also includes former defense minister Amir Hatami, managing director of Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries Mehdi Gogerdchian and Major General Gholam Rashid.
“Tuesday’s listings mean the government has now sanctioned 90 Iranian-linked individuals and 100 Iranian-linked entities and are a further demonstration of our commitment to taking strong action against Iran,” the government said.
According to a Foreign Ministry statement, the IRGC is a malignant actor that has long been a threat to international security, and to its own people.
It said the sanctioned include Iranian senior officials, business people and companies that have contributed to the development of Iran’s missile and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) programs.
“Iran’s proliferation and provision of these technologies to its proxies has fostered instability across the region for many years,” the statement added.
Wong pledged that Australia will continue to deliberately and strategically apply pressure on Iran to cease its disruptive activities and adhere to international law.

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Iran Is ‘Pressing the Gas Pedal’ on Uranium Enrichment, IAEA Chief Says 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
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Iran Is ‘Pressing the Gas Pedal’ on Uranium Enrichment, IAEA Chief Says 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)

Iran is "pressing the gas pedal" on its enrichment of uranium to near weapons grade, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday, adding that Iran's recently announced acceleration in enrichment was starting to take effect.

Grossi said last month that Iran had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it would "dramatically" accelerate enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, closer to the roughly 90% of weapons grade.

Western powers called the step a serious escalation and said there was no civil justification for enriching to that level and that no other country had done so without producing nuclear weapons. Iran has said its program is entirely peaceful and it has the right to enrich uranium to any level it wants.

"Before it was (producing) more or less seven kilograms (of uranium enriched to up to 60%) per month, now it's above 30 or more than that. So I think this is a clear indication of an acceleration. They are pressing the gas pedal," Grossi told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

According to an International Atomic Energy Agency yardstick, about 42 kg of uranium enriched to that level is enough in principle, if enriched further, for one nuclear bomb. Grossi said Iran currently had about 200 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60%.

Still, he said it would take time to install and bring online the extra centrifuges - machines that enrich uranium - but that the acceleration was starting to happen.

"We are going to start seeing steady increases from now," he said.

Grossi has called for diplomacy between Iran and the administration of new US President Donald Trump, who in his first term, pulled the United States out of a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that had imposed strict limits on Iran's atomic activities. That deal has since unraveled.

"One can gather from the first statements from President Trump and some others in the new administration that there is a disposition, so to speak, to have a conversation and perhaps move into some form of an agreement," he said.

Separately, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at Davos that Iran must make a first step towards improving relations with countries in the region and the United States by making it clear it does not aim to develop nuclear weapons.