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The sanctions are directed against five Iranian organizations, said the US Treasury Department (pictured)
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ANDREW KELLY / REUTERS
The Washington government has imposed sanctions on Tehran on allegations of meddling in the US presidential election.
The punitive measures are directed against five Iranian organizations, as the US Treasury Department announced on Thursday.
These are the powerful Revolutionary Guards and the subordinate Al-Kuds Brigades, an institute and two media organizations.
By spreading "misinformation", these organizations wanted to sow discord among the US population and "mislead" voters, the department said.
US intelligence coordinator John Ratcliffe announced on Wednesday that Iran - like Russia - had tapped data from US voters.
Both states wanted to use this data to send misinformation to registered voters ahead of the November 3rd election, he said.
Tehran and Moscow rejected the allegations.
An Iranian Foreign Office spokesman spoke of "inventions" and "clumsy" accusations.
He reiterated that Iran does not favor any candidate in the US presidential election.
On Thursday, US authorities announced that Russian hackers were attacking US government targets on a large scale.
With regard to Iran, the US has taken a tough course under President Donald Trump, who is competing in the election against former Vice President Joe Biden.
In May 2018, for example, Trump unilaterally terminated the international nuclear agreement with Iran and then had a series of sanctions against the country put into effect.
The 2015 agreement to limit Iran's nuclear program was negotiated under Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, whose deputy was Biden.
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One of the Iranian organizations now sanctioned by the USA is the Bayan Rasaneh Gostar Institute, which the US Treasury Department called the "front company" of the Al-Kuds Brigades.
Bayan Gostar has taken the leading role in the election interference in the US.
Employees of the institute wanted to exploit "social issues" in the United States, such as the corona pandemic, to "blacken" political figures.
The ministry did not provide any more specific information on the alleged Iranian election interventions.
In recent months, however, US online companies had blocked accounts and banned messages from their networks that they attributed to covert Iranian actors.
The sanctions prohibit US citizens and institutions from doing business with the affected Iranian organizations.
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