July 21, 2016 | Quoted by Jenna Lifhits - The Weekly Standard

Obama Administration Imposes Sanctions on Iran-Based Al-Qaeda Members After Denying Cooperation

The Obama administration has sanctioned three senior al-Qaeda members operating in Iran just weeks after dismissing reports of cooperation between the global terror organization and the Islamic Republic, deepening criticism from experts and lawmakers that the administration is seeking to downplay those connections in order to avoid complications with last summer's nuclear deal. 

The three members sanctioned on Wednesday helped move al-Qaeda “money and operatives from South Asia and across the Middle East” for years, the Treasury Department said in a statement. One of the operatives, Yisra Muhammad Ibrahim Bayumi, worked with Iranian officials.

“In general, the administration wants to justify the nuclear deal with Iran which grants extraordinary concessions to the Iranian regime, and it's very difficult to do that if you're out there saying, they're still [working] with al-Qaeda,” Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told TWS.

“Parts of the administration are … documenting facts on the ground, and you can see how those facts don't support the president's own policy goals,” he said. “It's very difficult to justify the president's policy goals if you just acknowledged that Iran is harboring the terror network that struck us on 9/11.”

The State and Treasury Departments have long acknowledged Iran's support for al-Qaeda. Their findings reveal the “large gulf” in the administration between facts and the White House's policy ambitions, Joscelyn said.

Even the administration's acknowledgment Wednesday of the connections between Iran and al-Qaeda was done in a way that minimized friction with Iran, according to a longtime sanctions expert who spoke to TWS.

“There was very little risk for the White House in designating [the al-Qaeda operatives],” said Jonathan Schanzer, who worked at the U.S. Treasury Department and is now vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “They were after all not Iranians themselves, and there will be very little financial impact as a result of these designations.”

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Issues:

Al Qaeda Iran