Washington responds to Iran’s penetration of US election system with more sanctions

Nora Bandary

The tensions between Iran and the United States are still intense in light of the mullah regime’s great suffering due to the US sanctions imposed by US President Donald Trump on Tehran in May 2018, which led to the deterioration of the Iranian economy and the collapse of the local currency. This makes Iran one of the countries that do not want Trump to lead the White House for a second term.

Iranian attempts

This prompted the Iranian regime to try to penetrate the US presidential elections scheduled for November 3, but the US security services uncovered this plot on October 22, when a video was published by mistake, confirming that it was Iranian hackers trying to influence the US elections. However, the security services were able to obtain information about the identity of these hackers from the video, and the electronic operation that they were carrying out was determined, which was immediately suspended, according to Reuters.

US sanctions

The US Treasury immediately issued a statement responding to this incident by imposing sanctions on five institutions affiliated with Iran, including the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Quds Force, Bayan Rasaneh Gostar Institute, and the Iranian Radio and Television Union.

The US Department indicated that these institutions used their arms to target the American electoral process by spreading false information about the elections to mislead voters, in addition to sending threatening messages via e-mail to terrify Democratic voters, according to US FBI Director Chris Wray.

Iranian denial

Iran denied this, as Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh stated that the announcement regarding Iran’s interference in the US elections is not true and that it is “repeated, fabricated and fraudulent” American accusations, indicating that the US intelligence services launch such lies to divert the attention of the American public from what is happening in the run-up to the elections. Hence, Iran summoned the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, who is in charge of America’s interests there, to deny these accusations and to confirm that it does not care who wins the White House.

However, Democratic candidate Joe Biden responded in press statements on October 23, saying, “If I win the election, they will pay a heavy price.” This would be a blow to Iran, the spokesperson for Iran’s representative in the United Nations, Alireza Miryousefi, responded by saying that Biden makes empty and funny accusations, stressing that Iran does not interfere in the elections of other countries and does not care who governs the United States.

Iranian preference for the Democrats

Mohammed al-Abadi, a researcher specializing in Iranian affairs and director of the Giddar Center, made it clear that Iran is making every effort to prevent Trump from reaching the White House for a second term, as he is viewed as dangerous for the Iranian regime.

In a statement to the Reference, Abadi pointed out that Iran is good at playing politics with the Democrats, as it managed to sign the historic nuclear agreement in the summer of 2015 during the era of former President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry. Iran has a strong lobby in Washington, so it will not spare any efforts to weaken Trump’s chances and to support Biden, who has promised to return to the nuclear agreement.

Regarding Biden’s recent statements, Abadi said that President Trump is hostile to Iran and is promoting it as a friend of the Democratic Party, taking advantage of Biden’s statements in which he mentioned the United States would return to the nuclear agreement if he wins the upcoming election. Therefore, Biden’s position came as a warning top Iran of the consequences of interfering in the elections to level the scale and to prevent Americans fearful of Iran from mobilizing in favor of Trump, as well as a real warning to prevent Iran from using its cyber capabilities from attempts to penetrate or manipulate the elections.