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.



7 Killed by Russian Attacks as Moscow Pushes Ahead in Ukraine's East

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
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7 Killed by Russian Attacks as Moscow Pushes Ahead in Ukraine's East

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV

Russian shelling in the town of Chasiv Yar on Saturday killed five people, as Moscow’s troops pushed ahead in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The attack struck a high-rise building and a private home, said regional Gov. Vadym Filaskhin, who said the victims were men aged 24 to 38. He urged the last remaining residents to leave the front-line town, which had a pre-war population of 12,000.
“Normal life has been impossible in Chasiv Yar for more than two years,” Filaskhin wrote on social media. “Do not become a Russian target — evacuate.” A further two people were killed by Russian shelling in the Kharkiv region. One victim was pulled from the rubble of a house in the village of Cherkaska Lozova, said Gov. Oleh Syniehubov, while a second woman died of her wounds while being transported to a hospital.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it captured the town of Pivnichne, also in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claim.
Russian forces have been driving deeper into the partly occupied eastern region, the total capture of which is one of the Kremlin’s primary ambitions. Russia’s army is closing in on Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub for the Ukrainian defense in the area.
At the same time, Ukraine has sent its forces into Russia’s Kursk region in recent weeks in the largest incursion onto Russian soil since World War II. The move is partly an effort to force Russia to draw troops away from the Donetsk front.
Elsewhere, the number of wounded following a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Friday continued to rise.
Six people were killed, including a 14-year-old girl, when glide bombs struck five locations across the city, said regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. Writing on social media Saturday, he said that the number of injured had risen from 47 to 96.
Syniehubov also confirmed that the 12-story apartment block that was hit by one bomb strike, setting the building ablaze and trapping at least one person on an upper floor, would be partly demolished.
Ukrainian officials have previously pointed to the Kharkiv strikes as further evidence that Western partners should scrap restrictions on what the Ukrainian military can target with donated weapons.
In an interview with CNN on Friday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that Kyiv had presented Washington with a list of potential long-range targets within Russia for its approval. “I hope we were heard,” he said.
He also denied speculation that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ’s decision to dismiss the commander of the country’s air force Friday was directly linked to the destruction of an F-16 warplane that Ukraine received from its Western partners four days earlier.
The order to dismiss Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk was published on the presidential website minutes before an address which saw Zelenskyy stress the need to “take care of all our soldiers.”
“This is two separate issues,” said Umerov. “At this stage, I would not connect them.”
The number of injured also continued to rise in the Russian border region of Belgorod, where five people were killed Friday by Ukrainian shelling, said Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. He said Sunday that 46 people had been injured, of whom 37 were in the hospital, including seven children. Writing on social media, Gladkov also said that two others had been injured in Ukrainian shelling across the region.