The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced expanded sanctions on Iranian officials in its efforts to hold all those brutally cracking down on peaceful protesters accountable.
Targeting “Architects of Iran’s Brutal Crackdown on Peaceful Protests,” US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent asserted that American stood firmly behind the Iranian people calling for freedom and justice. Additionally, the sanctions hit the Iranian Fardis Prison, where “women have endured cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment,” as per the US State Department’s statement.
“At the direction of President Trump, the Treasury Department is sanctioning key Iranian leaders involved in the brutal crackdown against the Iranian people,” he said, as per the the official US Department of the Treasury press release issued Thursday (US time). “The Treasury will use every tool to target those behind the regime’s tyrannical oppression of human rights.”
US sanctions Iranian officials
Amid US President Donald Trump’s threat to intervene with military forces against Iran, the US penalties announced Thursday targeted several political and security officials. Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), who is also a close advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was specifically name-dropped in the announcement.
“Larijani is responsible for coordinating the response to the protests on behalf of the Supreme Leader of Iran and has publicly called for Iranian security forces to use force to repress peaceful protesters,” the official press release stated.
It also noted, “Ali Larijani is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13876 for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Supreme Leader of Iran.”
Other officials red-flagged in the latest US sanctions announcement included Mohammad Reza Hashemifar, Commander of Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces in Lorestan Province, and Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) Commander Azizollah Malek for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic or Iran.
IRGC Commanders Yadollah Buali and Nematollah Bagheri were also called for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
US targets ‘money laundering network’
The US Treasury particularly called out Iran’s “shadow banking” network, which it said facilitates tens of billions of dollars’ worth of annual trade through the formal international financial system. The clandestine network is allegedly run by Bank Melli.
Notably, the US Treasury sanctioned 18 individuals and entities accused of laundering proceeds from Iranian petroleum and petrochemical sales. These include Iran-based Nikan Pezvak Aria Kish Company, UAE-based Empire International Trading FZE and Singapore’s Golden Mist PTE Ltd. Other senior officials linked to these firms were also impacted by the sanctions.
Financial institution Shahr Bank-linked companies like HMS Trading FZE and Tejarat Hermese Energy Qeshm and several trading and shipping firms accused of facilitating petrochemical and oil exports. The US Treasury argued further that the revenues generated through these institutions should be benefiting the Iranian people, who are facing economic calamity and crippling inflation among other crises fuelled by the regime’s economic mismanagement.
“…these funds are instead used to finance the regime’s repression of the Iranian people and its support for terrorist groups abroad,” the official press release contended.
The implication of the US sanctions imposed on these Iranian entities indicate that if they are violated, civil or criminal penalties may be launched. “The ultimate goal of sanctions is not to punish, but to bring about a positive change in behavior,” the US Treasury emphasised.
According to US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), more than 2,500 protesters have been killed and over 18,000 arrested since Iran began its protest crackdown.