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FILE PHOTO: Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport before the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit, in Beijing, China September 3, 2024.
US sanctions Sudanese leader
The United States on Thursday imposed financial sanctions on Sudan's army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The move came a week after Washington imposedsimilar sanctions on the leader of the rebel Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, whose militia has been warring with government forces for the past 18 months, ina conflict that has killed up to 150,000 people,displaced 11 million, and caused 26 million to go hungry.
Why sanction both sides? US officials said Thursday that the Sudanese army deployedchemical weapons against the RSF at least twice, and there are concerns they may use them in populated areas in the capital, Khartoum. They have also committed humanitarian violations and used starvation as a weapon of war.
As for the RSF, on Jan. 7, Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused the group ofperpetrating a genocide against the non-Arab Masalit people, killing boys and men and committing sexual violence against women and girls because of their ethnicity.
Washington doesn’t want to pick sides but to pressure them into a ceasefire. The RSF currently controlshalf of Sudan, including almost all of Darfur, Khartoum, and southern regions, and there are concerns thata partition of the country would lead to “state disintegration,” provoking an even greater humanitarian catastrophe.
People take part in New Year celebrations near the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral in central Moscow, Russia, on Jan. 1, 2025.
AI election interference spurs US sanctions
The United States has imposed sanctions on two organizations in Iran and Russia, accusing them of attempting to interfere in the 2024 presidential election through AI-fueled disinformation campaigns.
Iran’s Cognitive Design Production Center, linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Russia’s Center for Geopolitical Expertise, associated with Russia’s military intelligence agency, stand accused of using artificial intelligence to create deepfake videos, fake news sites, and social media posts to manipulate voters and undermine trust in the US electoral process.
“The governments of Iran and Russia have … sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,” Bradley T. Smith, the Treasury Department’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement on Tuesday. Both Russia and Iran deny the allegations.
In more cyber news, US officials said Monday that Chinese state-linked hackers breached major US agencies including the Treasury Department in early December and major telecoms firms in September. The cyber-espionage campaigns targeted sensitive data and political figures, accessing employee workstations and unclassified documents. Incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz says foreign hackers must face “higher costs and consequences,” but Beijing dismissed the accusations as attempts to “smear and slander China.”EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on leaving the office to report, film or take pictures in Tehran. A security personnel looks on at oil docks at the port of Kalantari in the city of Chabahar, 300km (186 miles) east of the Strait of Hormuz January 17, 2012.
India risks US sanctions over a new Iran port
On Monday, India signed a10-year-long agreement to operate and develop Iran’s Chabahar port. The move is meant to expand India’s agriculture exports to Afghanistan and Central Asia while bypassing existing routes through neighboring Pakistan, New Delhi’s main rival.
Flexing muscles. New Delhi, on track toovertake Japan as the world’s fourth-largest economy by 2025, has only managed the port under short-term contracts since 2018 and has already transported 2.5 million tonnes of wheat and 2,000 tonnes of pulses to Afghanistan. This new longer-term deal with a contractual value of roughly $370 million will reduce transit times between India, Iran, and Afghanistan.
But India is sailing at a risk. Just hours after the contract was signed, the US warned ofpotential sanctions on any country doing business deals with Tehran. Over the last three years, Washington has imposed over 600 sanctions on Iran-related entities.
India has not formally responded to Washington's warning yet, setting up a potential diplomatic clash that may test the limits of India’s willingness to defy its Western allies in order to pursue its own strategic interests in the region.