Several of the sites were back online within hours with new
domain addresses.
"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.
Also spelled Kataib Hezbollah, KH is one of the main
Iran-aligned Iraqi militia groups and has been designated a Foreign Terrorist
Organization by the United States.
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.
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.
KH also did not obtain a license.
Notices appeared earlier on Tuesday on a number of
Iran-affiliated websites saying they had been seized by the United States
government as part of law enforcement action.
Iranian news agencies said the U.S. government had seized
several Iranian media websites and sites belonging to groups affiliated with
Iran such as Yemen's Houthi movement.
The notices appeared days after a prominent hardliner and
fierce critic of the West, Ebrahim Raisi, was elected as Iran's new president
and after envoys for Iran and six world powers, including Washington, adjourned
high-stakes talks on reviving their tattered 2015 nuclear accord and returned
to capitals for consultations.
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."
The site quickly opened up a new, working website at
www.almasirah.com.
Iran's Arabic language Alalam TV said on its Telegram
channel: "U.S. authorities shut down Al-Alam TV's website."
Notices also appeared on the website of Lualua TV, an
Arabic-language Bahraini independent channel that broadcasts from Britain.
U.S. prosecutors in October seized a network of web domains
they said were used in a campaign by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to
spread political disinformation around the world.
The Justice Department said then it had taken control of 92
domains used by the IRGC to pose as independent media outlets targeting
audiences in the United States, Europe, Middle East and Southeast Asia.
The semi-official Iranian news agency YJC agency said on
Tuesday the U.S. move "demonstrates that calls for freedom of speech are
lies."
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