In a major crackdown on Iranian militia groups, the United States Department of Justice has seized a number of websites used by the Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union, a racheting up of tensions between the two countries.
“Today, pursuant to court orders, the United States seized 33 websites used by the Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU) and three websites operated by Kata’ib Hizballah (KH), in violation of U.S. sanctions,” the department said in a statement.
The website of the Arabic-language Masirah TV, which is run by the Houthis, read:
“The domain almasirah.net has been seized by the United States Government in accordance with a seizure warrant … as part of a law enforcement action by the Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Export Enforcement and Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
Several of the sites were back online within hours with new domain addresses.
The sites seized included Press TV, the Iranian government’s main English-language satellite television channel, and Al Alam, its Arabic-language equivalent. Both came back online using Iranian domain addresses Alalam.ir and Presstv.ir, according to the Justice Department.
The Justice Department said the 33 domains used by IRTVU are owned by a United States company, and that IRTVU did not obtain a license from Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control prior to utilizing the domain names. As such the domains were open to seizure.