US targets more facilitators helping Iran procure weapons

The United States, on Wednesday, slammed punitive measures on four individuals and three entities aiding weapons procurement on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

The sanctions, according to the State Department, will disrupt the foreign procurement efforts and financial networks that sustain the IRGC’s weapons capabilities.

Washington said Iran continues to impede free navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, including attacks on commercial vessels, despite efforts of the U.S. to implement the MoU.

The latest sanctions came just over a month after the U.S. imposed equivalent actions on Tehran’s associates linked to clandestine purchase of arms for the Iranian military.

The targeting of the facilitators aligns with the renewed UN Security Council resolutions, including resolutions 1747 (2007) and 1929 (2010), which restrict Iran’s proliferation-related activities.

American forces have conducted a second round of strikes across Iran, following up on assaults on coastal defense systems, cruise missile storage, and launch sites in Greater Tunb Island.

The latter bombardments by CENTCOM on Wednesday triggered explosions in multiple cities in the country’s south, including Bandar Abbas, Chabahar, and Konarak.

Tasnim news agency said a projectile exploded near the city of Rask, while Mehr reported U.S. strikes hit near a children’s cancer hospital in Ahvaz, inducing an evacuation.

Iran Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the nation is engaged in a “crucial and existential war,” vowing they will not back down amid renewed hostilities.

Meanwhile, in the thick of the Hormuz Strait standoff, Iran is reportedly preparing to weaponize the Red Sea by employing its Houthi proxies to block the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb.

The channel, a major choke point between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa, links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.