The US is hitting back at Iran with more than just airstrikes

In the hours before the United States launched attacks on Iran-backed militants on Friday, Washington hit Tehran with more familiar weapons: sanctions and criminal charges.

The Biden administration has sanctioned officers and officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iran's main military force, for threatening the integrity of water companies and helping produce Iranian drones. And it unveiled charges against nine people for selling oil to finance the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

The timing appeared designed to put pressure on the Revolutionary Guard and its most elite unit, the Quds Force, at a moment of extraordinary tension in the Middle East. Although the sanctions have been going on for some time and the charges were previously filed under seal, the region has been in turmoil for months.

The actions are part of a coordinated government effort to disrupt Iran's efforts to use illicit oil sales to finance terrorism and to roll back the country's increasingly capable offensive cyber operations. In the 15 years since the United States launched a major cyberattack on Iran's nuclear facilities, the country has trained a generation of hackers and beaten them back to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States, among others.

The effects of sanctions and indictments are difficult to measure. Few Iranian officers or officials maintain assets in Western banks or travel to the United States, meaning the sanctions may have little practical effect. While the charges and sanctions have a psychological element, showing Iranians and their business partners around the world that Western intelligence agencies often monitor their movements and transactions, actual arrests and trials are rare.

“The reason we are bringing these cases is because we know that the money Iran gets from its illegal oil sales is used to fund its malign activities around the world,” said Matthew G. Olsen, head of the National Security Division of the Ministry of Justice. , said Friday. “Iran's threats and the destabilizing effects of its actions have only come into sharper focus since the attacks of October 7,” the day of the Hamas attack on Israel that killed approximately 1,200 people.

There has been a wave of action against Iran over the past week, culminating in Friday's attacks on Iranian allies in Syria and Iraq. The airstrikes were in retaliation for a drone strike last Sunday that killed three American soldiers at a base in Jordan.

On Monday, the Minnesota Department of Justice unsealed charges against an Iranian man accused of hiring a member of the Hells Angels to kill Iranian dissidents living in Maryland. On Wednesday, Four Chinese citizens were charged in Washingtonaccused of trying to smuggle and export technology used in military equipment and weapons for groups linked to the Revolutionary Guards, part of an ongoing effort to break the West's many bans on the sale of technology that could be used in weapon systems or surveillance.

The sanctions affecting the water companies include hacks on so-called “logic controllers,” made by an Israeli company, Unitronics, that operate the pumps and valves in the water systems. Approaching the auditors is a way to remind the United States and other countries that their critical infrastructure is vulnerable.

“The United States, working with the private sector and other affected countries, quickly resolved the incidents with minimal impact,” the Treasury Department said. But it was hardly the only attack of this kind to come from Iran: ransomware attacks have come from Iranian hackers, including one against Boston Children's Hospital three years ago, and even against a major casino in Las Vegas.

The sanctions targeted a range of officials from the Revolutionary Guards' “electronic warfare and cyber defense organization,” including its leader, Hamid Reza Lashgarian.

Another set of sanctions, issued by the State Department, targeted four companies that the United States said provided materials and technology for Iran's drone and missile programs. The drones are of particular concern because Russia is using them in large numbers against Ukraine.

The most dramatic move came from the Justice Department, which unveiled charges against nine people from Iran, Turkey, China and Oman in connection with efforts to smuggle and sell Iranian oil in violation of U.S. laws.

The legal action came as tensions between the United States and Iran increased. Attacks like the one that killed three Americans are funded by the illegal sale of Iranian oil, officials said. And the intensity has increased since October 7, with more than 160 attacks on US forces in Iraq, Syria and Jordan by Iranian-backed militias.

“Today's cases are part of the Department's ongoing efforts to cut off the flow of Iranian black market oil, which funds the regime's malign activities and thus threatens the United States and our interests around the world ,” said Mr. Olsen.

Erik Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.