Instagram freezes accounts of senior Iranian commanders
The Instagram account of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Qassem Suleimani is among several frozen by the photo-sharing platform, according to reports.
The move follows the announcement by the US on April 8 that it classified the Revolutionary Guards as a “foreign terrorist organisation”.
The social media accounts of its commander-in-chief, Maj Gen Mohammad Ali Jafari, and the Iranian armed forces’ chief of staff, Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri, were also suspended.
Instagram also appears to have at some point suspended the English-language account of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But the account is now running again.
The reason for the suspensions was not clear.
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain put the Revolutionary Guards on their terrorism lists last October.
Washington’s move aimed to highlight Tehran’s efforts to destabilise the Middle East by supporting armed proxies.
Iran spent nearly a billion dollars a year to support terrorism, a US State Department official told The National last week.
Iran is responsible for 603 US personnel casualties in Iraq, the official said.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week that Maj Gen Suleimani will be viewed the same as extremists such as ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi.
“He’s a terrorist. Qassem Suleimani has the blood of Americans on his hands, as do the forces he leads,” Mr Pompeo told US broadcaster Fox.
“America is determined each time we find an organisation, institution or an individual that has taken the lives of individuals, it is our responsibility to reduce that risk,” he said.
The Donald Trump administration last year described the Revolutionary Guards as
Accounts of the Revolutionary Guards commander-in-chief and armed forces chief of staff were also suspended
“a state sponsor of terrorism” that used and promoted terrorism as an Iranian tool.
Iran has been accused by the US and Arab states of interfering in their internal affairs and of trying to destabilise the region. But the leadership in Tehran responded by calling US forces in the Middle East a “terrorist organisation”.
Tensions between Tehran and Washington increased last year after Mr Trump withdrew from a 2015 deal intended to limit Tehran’s nuclear programme.