Sep. 6 – Switzerland’s government has approved a new law to designate the Islamic Republic-backed Hamas group as a terrorist organization and to ban the group from carrying out activities in the country.
Breaches of the new law are punishable with a prison sentence or a fine.
The legislation must now make its way through the Swiss Parliament.
The United Kingdom placed financial sanctions on a military unit operating within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Quds Force this week.
The sanctions target Unit 700, which experts say is used to arm the Islamic Republic’s proxy groups in the Middle East.
The UK’s Foreign Office accused the unit of “activity by an armed group backed by the Government of Iran” designed to “cause the destabilization of the United Kingdom” and other countries.
And Iran’s government has been forced to pay out millions of dollars in ransom money after a hacking group threatened to release private account data from at least 20 banks in the country.
Hacking group IRLeaks, which has a history of targeting Iranian companies, is believed to be behind the breach according to officials. The attack was first reported on by opposition news outlet Iran International.
The group had initially asked for $10 million, but later negotiated a settlement believed to amount to at least $3 million with the Iranian government. The Iranian government has not yet acknowledged the breach publicly.
