The United States joined the European Union and Britain in imposing new sanctions Monday on Iran in response to a crackdown on protesters.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters at a briefing that the new sanctions involved 10 people, including Iran’s deputy intelligence minister and key commanders in the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Price said the sanctions were meant to “promote accountability for the Iranian regime’s human rights.”
“Today’s action is the latest of numerous tranches of sanctions made in close consultation with our allies and partners and aimed at Iranian individuals and entities connected to Iranian authorities’ cruel and violent crackdown against peaceful protesters,” Price said.
Iran’s foreign ministry on Tuesday condemned the new sanctions from the European Union and Britain and pledged to retaliate in kind.
“The Islamic Republic will soon announce the list of new sanctions against the human rights violators of EU and England,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said in a statement.
European Union sanctions imposed Monday targeted dozens of officials and organizations. The EU sanctions list included Iran’s Sports and Youth Minister Hamid Sajjadi, the Iranian Special Police Forces, Revolutionary Guard Corps senior officers and multiple cybersecurity, spyware and security equipment companies.
Britain’s sanctions included Iranian deputy prosecutor general Ahmad Fazelian. Britain’s foreign office says Fazelian was responsible for an unfair judicial system that utilized the death penalty for political purposes.
“Those sanctioned today, from the judicial figures using the death penalty for political ends to the thugs beating protestors on the streets, are at the heart of the regime’s brutal repression of the Iranian people,” British foreign minister James Cleverly said in a statement.__VOA News
