The US Department of the Treasury (UST) imposed new sanctions against Iran on Friday in response to the recent repression of protesters by the Islamic Republic. The sanctions were announced in a press release on the department's website.
The Treasury Department explained that these new sanctions specifically target individuals and entities responsible for acts of violence and repression against the Iranian civilian population. The goal is to pressure the Iranian government to change its behavior toward its people, particularly regarding human rights abuses and destabilizing actions.
The release stated, "Today, as the people of Iran bravely take to the streets to demand basic freedoms and economic security, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is taking action against the architects of the Iranian regime’s brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators."
Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent commented on the new sanctions, affirming, "The United States stands firmly behind the Iranian people in their call for freedom and justice."
“At the direction of President Trump, the Treasury Department is sanctioning key Iranian leaders involved in the brutal crackdown against the Iranian people. Treasury will use every tool available to target those responsible for the regime’s tyrannical oppression of human rights.”
Targeted security officials
Among those sanctioned is Ali Larijani, the Secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security, who has advocated violence against peaceful demonstrators. Other targets include security officials from various Iranian provinces where protests have faced violent suppression.
The new sanctions also focus on what the UST describes as "shadow banking" networks—systems used to launder revenue from Iran's petroleum and petrochemical sales. OFAC identified 18 individuals and entities that play critical roles in laundering the proceeds from these sales to foreign markets as part of the clandestine "shadow banking" networks associated with the sanctioned Iranian financial institutions Bank Melli and Shahr Bank.
Regarding the Iranian regime's use of these shadow banking networks, the UST statement read, “Rather than using these revenues to benefit the Iranian people, who face economic calamity amid crippling inflation and massive deficits caused 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 newest sanctions by the Treasury will block the assets of all designated individuals and entities in the US, prohibiting any transactions involving them. The statement added that any violations may result in civil or criminal penalties.
“As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated or blocked persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC,” the statement concluded.