July 6 (UPI) — Britain is arming itself with new sanctioning powers to target Iran’s leadership, London announced Thursday, as it condemned the Tehran regime for increasing its efforts to kill and kidnap dissidents abroad, including those residing in the European nation.
Britain’s existing Iran sanction regime allows it blacklist individuals and entities over human rights abuses, but the new powers announced Thursday will allow it to go after those involved in Iran’s Middle East and international destabilizing activities.
It also gives London the ability target the Tehran regime’s use and spread of weapons and weapons technologies, its undermining of democracy and the rule of law and its hostile activities directed toward Britain and its parters, including their citizens.
“The Iranian regime is oppressing its own people, exporting bloodshed in Ukraine and the Middle East and threatening to kill and kidnap on UK soil,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement. “Today, the UK has sent a clear message to the regime — we will not tolerate this malign behavior and we will hold you to account.”
As Britain unveiled the new powers, it announced that Iran has increased its efforts to kidnap and kill those it views as enemies who reside abroad and that, since the start of 2022, British authorities have responded to more than 15 threats by the regime targeting British citizens or those who live within the island nation.
British officials said that Iranian intelligence services have developed relations with British and European criminal gangs to expand their abilities to reach those the regime seeks to either have killed or captured while at home harassing the families of their targets.
London on Thursday also used its existing powers to sanction 13 people and entities on allegations of committing human rights abuses.
In a statement, Iran’s foreign ministry chastised the announcement of the sanctioning powers as a “destructive” and meddlesome” move, and that Elizabeth Marsh, the charge d’affairs at Britain’s embassy in Tehran, had been summoned by the Western Europe Department’s director general who “strongly condemned the statements of British officials and the UK regime’s latest sanctions on Iran as illegal.”
In Washington, D.C., State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the United States welcomes Britain’s new sanctioning authority and encourages other democratic nations to follow and enact their own.
“We reiterate our resolve to work with the UK and other allies and partners to deter and respond to any threats or attacks by Iran,” he said in a statement.
“Iran’s hostile activities contrast starkly with the United States’ efforts to seek de-escalation and secure a more integrated, prosperous Middle East region.”
