State Dept. sanctions seven Iranians over protest crackdown, financial issues

The Trump administration is imposing sanctions on Iranian officials involved with security forces who cracked down on mass protests in the Islamic republic.

A State Department notice on Friday said sanctions will target six Iranian officials who oversee security forces and an Iranian investor accused of embezzling “billions in funds from the Iranian people.”

The sanctions are the latest move in President Trump’s pressure campaign on Tehran, which is working to crush mass protests over financial turmoil.

“As the Iranian people protest 47 years of catastrophic economic mismanagement, the regime continues to choose funding terrorist militias abroad and its vast weapons programs over the basic needs of everyday Iranians,” the department said. “The people of Iran suffer from rising inflation, crumbling infrastructure, and shortages of water and electricity because the regime is squandering their wealth on its malign activities. The United States supports the Iranian people in their protests against the corrupt and repressive regime in Tehran.”

Days earlier, Mr. Trump said he dispatched a U.S. fleet to waters near Iran and would make its leaders pay if they do not strike a deal to limit their nuclear ambitions. 

He did not lay out the contours of a possible deal in his post, beyond his insistence that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons.

However, his administration has pushed for the removal of highly enriched uranium from Iran; free access to surprise inspections of Iran’s facilities; limits on Iran’s long-range ballistic missile program; and the end of Tehran’s proxy support for militant groups such as Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Mr. Trump said the next attack would be “far worse” than his Operation Midnight Hammer in June, when the U.S. military struck major Iranian nuclear sites.

During his first term, Mr. Trump authorized a strike to kill Qasem Soleimani, a top official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The president opted against a more recent strike against Iran, however, saying Tehran pulled back from a plan to perform mass executions of protesters.