The federal government announced new sanctions on Wednesday to “combat the terrorist activities” of Hamas and “thwart its financial networks,” as well as against “extremist” Israeli settlers who have committed “acts of violence” against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank.
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Ottawa also added, “in coordination” with Australia and the United States, five senior Iranian officials to its sanctions list for their role in promoting “repressive and discriminatory policies” that led to the violent repression of protests.
The sanctions were announced to mark two years since the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman arrested by morality police for violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.
The new sanctions also target 11 individuals and two entities that played a role in the financial network of Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist movement, which Ottawa says was used in the planning and execution of attacks against Israel starting October 7, 2023.
Four Israelis, as well as the Mount Hebron Fund and Shlom Asiraich organizations, were also listed for “participating in acts of harassment and violence, including attacks on humanitarian convoys, dispossession of property and displacement of Palestinian communities,” a government statement said.
The sanctions were put in place as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met Wednesday with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, who is acting alongside Egypt and the United States as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, which have been at war for nearly a year.
Archive photo, AFP
According to a report of their meeting in Ottawa, Mr. Trudeau expressed “deep concern about the risk of an extension of the conflict between Israel and Iran as well as with (Lebanese) Hezbollah and other groups aligned with Iran.”
