{"id":99486,"date":"2020-12-15T02:22:44","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T20:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/us%e2%80%af-imposes-1st-sanctions-on-iran-for-abduction-probable-death-of-american-robert-levinson\/"},"modified":"2020-12-15T14:38:19","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T08:38:19","slug":"us%e2%80%af-imposes-1st-sanctions-on-iran-for-abduction-probable-death-of-american-robert-levinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/us%e2%80%af-imposes-1st-sanctions-on-iran-for-abduction-probable-death-of-american-robert-levinson\/","title":{"rendered":"US\u202f Imposes 1st Sanctions on Iran for Abduction, Probable Death of American Robert Levinson"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States\u202fhas taken its first public action against Iran for the disappearance of an American on an Iranian island in 2007, sanctioning two Iranian intelligence agents it identified as directly responsible for retired FBI agent Robert Levinson\u2019s abduction and probable death.<\/p>\n

\n
\"FILE<\/figure>
The US Treasury Department building viewed from the Washington Monument, Sept. 18, 2019, in Washington.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a Monday statement, the U.S. Treasury Department named the sanctioned Iranian agents as Mohammad\u202fBaseri\u202fand Ahmad\u202fKhazai and described them as \u201chigh-ranking\u201d officials with Iran\u2019s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).<\/p>\n

A senior U.S. official told reporters in a conference call it was unlikely that Baseri and Khazai have U.S. bank accounts that would be blocked by the sanctions.<\/p>\n

But the U.S. official said the two Iranian agents would face secondary sanctions for their activities outside of Iran. Those activities have included leading MOIS delegations abroad and meeting intelligence officials from other countries, the official added.<\/p>\n

Few other details of the two men were provided.<\/p>\n

\u201cI've looked into Baseri and Khazai, and unsurprisingly, there isn't an extensive public paper trail,\u201d said Jason Brodsky, policy director of U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran in a message to VOA Persian.<\/p>\n

Brodsky said agents of Iran\u2019s MOIS appear to have engaged in the abduction and killing of individuals abroad as well as at home. U.S. and Turkish officials told Western media they suspect MOIS agents operating in Istanbul of killing Iranian dissident Masoud Molavi Vardanjani in November 2019 and abducting another Iranian dissident, Habib Chaab, to Iran in October this year.<\/p>\n

Iranian state media acknowledged the U.S. sanctions on Baseri and Khazai without comment from Iranian officials. A report Monday by state-run news agency ISNA also repeated the Iranian foreign ministry\u2019s past rejection of Tehran\u2019s responsibility for Levinson\u2019s disappearance and its assertion that he left Iran many years ago.<\/p>\n

Levinson disappeared March 9, 2007, while visiting southern Iran's Kish Island as a private investigator. He had retired from a 22-year career with the FBI nine years earlier. In 2013, several U.S. news outlets reported that Levinson had been part of a rogue CIA intelligence mission, a claim that U.S. authorities have not confirmed.\u202f<\/p>\n

\n
\"A<\/figure>
A U.S. Marine is posted at the West Wing door at the White House in Washington, Oct. 7, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In its first substantive comment on Levinson\u2019s fate, the Trump administration said in March that it believed Levinson \u201cmay have passed away some time ago.\u201d \u202f<\/p>\n

Family members had not received any proof of life from Levinson since his captors sent a video and photos of him looking gaunt and disheveled in 2010 and 2011 respectively.<\/p>\n

The Levinson family issued a statement welcoming the U.S. sanctions on the two Iranian agents as an important step \u201cin a long road toward achieving justice\u201d for their loved one.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of these men and others like them, our wonderful husband, father and grandfather died alone, thousands of miles from everyone he loved,\u201d the family said. \u201cNo matter how long it takes, we will find the individuals who are responsible for what happened to Bob Levinson, and we will hold them accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House said\u202fthe U.S. sanctions on the two Iranian agents show it will hold Tehran accountable for its use of \u201cdetention and hostage taking as a tool of diplomacy."\u202f<\/p>\n

Iran had been detaining and preventing three other Americans with dual Iranian-American nationality from leaving the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo family should ever endure the pain the Levinson family has for nearly 14 years,\u201d read a statement from the White House\u202fpress\u202fsecretary. \u201cIran is responsible and can end this nightmare by answering questions for which only they hold the answers. Any future talks with Iran must include resolution to this case. We stand by the Levinson family, and we will never cease in our efforts to bring justice for Bob and his family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by VOA Persian what more she thinks U.S. authorities should do, Bob\u2019s wife Christine Levinson said: \u201cWe would like them to continue to keep the pressure on Iran, just as they have been doing, because Iran needs to finally give us the answers to what happened to Bob.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was a collaboration between VOA\u2019s English News Center and Persian Service<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States\u202fhas taken its first public action against Iran for the disappearance of an American on an Iranian island in 2007, sanctioning two Iranian intelligence agents it identified as directly responsible for retired FBI agent Robert Levinson\u2019s abduction and probable death. The US Treasury Department building viewed from the Washington Monument, Sept. 18, 2019, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99486"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}