{"id":187696,"date":"2021-06-28T12:00:54","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T11:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=187696"},"modified":"2024-09-23T14:39:11","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T13:39:11","slug":"us-blocks-websites-linked-to-iranian-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/06\/us-blocks-websites-linked-to-iranian-government\/","title":{"rendered":"US Blocks Websites Linked to Iranian Government"},"content":{"rendered":"

23 Jun 2021 – US law enforcement seized the websites of two Iranian state-controlled news groups, <\/em>Press TV and<\/em> Al-Alam, and of the <\/em>Al-Masirah TV channel of Yemen’s Huthis, statements posted on the websites showed Tuesday [22 Jun].<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The website of Iran’s Arabic language Al Kawtathar television is seen with a notice which appeared on a number of Iran-affiliated websites saying they had been seized by the United States government as part of law enforcement action, in a screenshot taken June 22, 2021. \u00a9 via Reuters<\/p><\/div>\n

Each site displayed a single page with a statement that it “has been seized by the United States<\/a> Government” and making reference to US sanctions laws, accompanied by the seal of the FBI<\/a> and the US Department of Commerce.<\/p>\n

Press TV is Iran’s<\/a> main English language broadcaster, and Al-Alam its main Arabic-language newscaster.<\/p>\n

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), the parent of Al-Alam, reported that other web domains, including Palestine-Al Youm, a Palestinian-directed broadcaster, and an Arabic-language religious and cultural channel were also seized.<\/p>\n

Domains tied to Iran-backed groups in Iraq and to Hezbollah<\/a>, the Lebanese military-political faction, were also frozen with the US Justice Department message.<\/p>\n

IRIB accused the United States of repressing freedom of expression and joining forces with Israel<\/a> and Saudi Arabia<\/a> “to block pro-resistance media outlets exposing the crimes of US allies in the region”.<\/p>\n

Tehran issued a statement Wednesday saying that the move was \u201cnot constructive\u201d for ongoing talks on bringing Washington back into a landmark nuclear deal.<\/p>\n

“We are using all international and legal means to … condemn … this mistaken policy of the United States,” the director of the president’s office, Mahmoud Vaezi, told reporters.<\/p>\n

Asked during a US State Department briefing about the Press TV seizure, spokesman Ned Price declined to comment, but referred reporters to the Justice Department which he said was expected to provide information soon.<\/p>\n

Bahrain’s<\/a> LuaLua TV, a channel run by opposition groups with offices in London and Beirut, was also closed, according to an AFP correspondent in the region.<\/p>\n

In Yemen<\/a> the Houthis<\/a> said on the website of their political wing that they condemned “this American piracy and copyright confiscation”.<\/p>\n

“The government of the United States of America is banning the Al-Masirah website without any justification or even prior notice,” they said.<\/p>\n

A-Masirah quickly established a new website, using its name but swapping the .net domain for .com.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile\u00a0LuaLua and Al-Masirah continued to broadcast new programmes, AFP journalists said.<\/p>\n

The United States maintains strict sanctions on Iran due to its nuclear weapons programmes and alleged support for terror.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of Iranian organisations and individuals have been placed on the US sanctions blacklist.<\/p>\n

The sanctions forbid Americans and businesses and organisations with US operations from doing any business with Iran.<\/p>\n

The US action came as Washington seeks to restore the 2015 agreement between Tehran and six major countries to freeze its nuclear programme<\/a> in exchange for lifting sanctions.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In 2018 then-president Donald Trump ordered the United States to withdraw from the agreement, alleging that Iran was not adhering to its commitments, though independent nuclear inspectors said it was.<\/p>\n

Upon taking office this year, President Joe Biden<\/a> committed to rejoining the agreement and talks with Iran on what both sides would do to resume the pact have gone on for weeks.<\/p>\n

EU negotiator Enrique Mora said on Sunday that those involved in the talks were “closer” to saving the Iran nuclear deal but that sticking points remain.<\/p>\n

The US action also came just after Iranians elected ultraconservative cleric Ibrahim Raisi<\/a> as president.<\/p>\n

Go to Original – france24.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

23 Jun 2021 – US law enforcement seized the websites of two Iranian state-controlled news groups, Press TV and Al-Alam, and of the Al-Masirah TV channel of Yemen’s Huthis, statements posted on the websites showed Tuesday [22 Jun].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":187697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[867,2197,125,1126,1050,742,378,234,767,923,70],"class_list":["post-187696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-anglo-america","tag-biden","tag-freedom-of-the-press","tag-hegemony","tag-imperialism","tag-iran","tag-journalism","tag-media","tag-middle-east","tag-sanctions","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274982,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187696\/revisions\/274982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}