Canada Hits Hamas, Israeli Settlers, Iran With New Sanctions

Protests in Ottawa, Canada on February 5, 2022  - Dave Chan AFP
Protests in Ottawa, Canada on February 5, 2022 - Dave Chan AFP
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Canada Hits Hamas, Israeli Settlers, Iran With New Sanctions

Protests in Ottawa, Canada on February 5, 2022  - Dave Chan AFP
Protests in Ottawa, Canada on February 5, 2022 - Dave Chan AFP

Canada on Wednesday announced further sanctions against Hamas over its "acts of terror" and several Israeli settlers for "extremist violence" against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.

Ottawa also, along with Australia and the United States, added five senior Iranian officials to its sanctions list for their roles in policies leading to the violent repression of protests, AFP reported.

The new sanctions target 11 individuals and two entities with roles in Hamas's financial network that Ottawa said was used in the planning and execution of attacks on Israel launched on October 7, 2023, the government said in a statement.

Four Israelis, as well as the Mount Hebron Fund and Shlom Asiraich, were also listed for "participating in or facilitating acts of harassment and violence, including attacks on humanitarian convoys... and displacement of Palestinian communities."

The latest sanctions against five senior Iranian officials were announced to mark the two years since the death in Iranian custody of Mahsa Amini, following her arrest for an alleged breach of Tehran's strict dress code for women.

As the sanctions were rolled out, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, which is acting as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, along with Egypt and the United States.

Trudeau expressed a "deep concern over the risk of an expanded conflict between Israel and Iran as well as Hezbollah and other Iran-aligned groups," according to a readout of their talks.



Iran Denies Targeting Ex-US officials

25 September 2024, US, Cherokee: Former US president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally inside the Mosack Group manufacturing warehouse in Mint Hill. Photo: Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
25 September 2024, US, Cherokee: Former US president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally inside the Mosack Group manufacturing warehouse in Mint Hill. Photo: Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Iran Denies Targeting Ex-US officials

25 September 2024, US, Cherokee: Former US president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally inside the Mosack Group manufacturing warehouse in Mint Hill. Photo: Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
25 September 2024, US, Cherokee: Former US president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally inside the Mosack Group manufacturing warehouse in Mint Hill. Photo: Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Iran said on Thursday that accusations it had targeted former US officials were baseless, after former US president Donald Trump implicated Iran, without offering evidence, in assassination attempts against him.
"It is obvious that such accusations are just a part of creating the election atmosphere in the US...., and not even worth a response," Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said in a statement.
Trump, the Republican candidate to return to the presidency, said on Wednesday Iran may have been behind recent attempts to assassinate him and suggested that if he were president and another country threatened a US presidential candidate, it risked being "blown to smithereens.”
"There have been two assassination attempts on my life that we know of, and they may or may not involve, but possibly do, Iran, but I don’t really know," Trump said at an event a pipe-fittings plant in Mint Hill, North Carolina.
Trump made his remarks after US intelligence officials briefed him a day earlier on "real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him," according to his campaign.
Federal authorities are probing assassination attempts targeting Trump at his Florida golf course in mid-September and at a rally in Pennsylvania in July. There has been no public suggestion by law enforcement agencies of involvement by Iran or any other foreign power in either incident.