In the hours before the United States carried out strikes against Iran-backed militants on Friday, Washington hit Tehran with more familiar weapons: sanctions and criminal charges.
The Biden administration sanctioned officers and officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iran’s premier military force, for threatening the integrity of water utilities and for helping manufacture Iranian drones.
And it unsealed charges against nine people for selling oil to finance the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
The timing seemed designed to pressure the Revolutionary Guards and its most elite unit, the Quds Force, at a moment of extraordinary tension in the Middle East.
In the 15 years since the United States mounted a major cyberattack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the country has trained a generation of hackers and struck back at Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States, among others.
Persons:
Biden
Organizations:
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Revolutionary Guards, Quds Force
Locations:
United States, Iran, Washington, Tehran, Israel, Saudi Arabia