Treasury Places Sanctions on al Qaeda Operative in Iran

WSJ

The U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday it designated another member of an al Qaeda network operating in Iran, placing him under sanctions.

Adel Radi Saqr al-Wahabi al-Harbi serves as a deputy to Iran-based al Qaeda facilitator Muhsin al-Fadhli, Treasury said, accusing al-Harbi of facilitating the travel of fighters to Afghanistan or Iraq via Iran on behalf of al Qaeda. He’s also believed to have sought funds to support attacks, Treasury said.

The action taken Thursday follows a Treasury designation in July 2011 of Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil, also known as Yasin al-Suri, and five others for operating a pipeline that moves al Qaeda money and fighters through Iran to support the group’s activity in South Asia. The network is also sending funding and fighters to Syria, Treasury said.

Al-Fadhli, Treasury said, is a veteran al Qaeda operative who was placed under sanctions in February 2005 for supporting the al-Zarqawi network in Iraq. He began working in Iran in 2009 and was later arrested by the Iranians. He was subsequently released by Iran in 2011.

Also Thursday, the State Department announced it would give a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to the location of al-Fahdli, and up to $5 million for information leading to the location of al-Harbi.

The State Department previously offered a reward of up to $10 million for the location of al-Suri, and Treasury said Thursday in its statement that the reward remains available.

A senior Treasury official said to reporters Thursday on a conference call that though the action does freeze his assets, the designation of al-Harbi is not designed so much to target his money as it is to disrupt the al Qaeda network in Iran.

That network, Treasury said, uses Iran as a critical transit point, operating under an agreement between al Qaeda and the Iranian government despite their religious differences.

Under the terms of the agreement, Shiite-dominated Iran gives al Qaeda, a predominately Sunni group, freedom to operate and uninhibited travel in exchange for a guarantee it won’t conduct operations or recruit members in the country, Treasury said.

“We will continue targeting this crucial source of al Qaeda’s funding and support, as well as highlight Iran’s ongoing complicity in this network’s operation,” said David Cohen, undersecretary of Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, in the statement.