Iran's government has answered a move by the United States against the nation's envoy to Baghdad, blacklisting a US official in return.
The US Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control earlier imposed sanctions against Iraj Masjedi, a general in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) and Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq, for purportedly acting on behalf of the IRGC-QF.
The Treasury Department claims that Masjedi, allegedly a confidante of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in Iraq in January of this year, controlled the training and funding of Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. Moreover, the US claims that Masjedi used his role as ambassador to fund the IRGC's Quds Force.
In addition to the ambassador, the Treasury Department also blacklisted five Iranian entities that have allegedly interfered in the US presidential election.