The United States on Wednesday imposed one more round of sanctions on Iran, including a foundation linked to the country’s supreme leader, and vowed more punitive measures are on the way.
The State Department designated Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials Heidar Abbaszadeh and Reza Papi for their alleged involvement in the violent suppression of anti-government protesters in November 2019.
In the deadliest unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, widespread anti-regime demonstrations erupted across Iran last year over the government’s abrupt decision to significantly raise prices on gasoline. According to Amnesty International, at least 304 people died in the protests, including 23 children.
The Trump administration on Wednesday linked the new sanctions to the massacre in the city of Bandar Mahshahr, which killed at least 148 people a year ago. According to the State Department, both protesters and bystanders were “targeted by snipers on rooftops, tracked down and surrounded by armored vehicles, and sprayed with machine-gun fire.”
In addition, Iran’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi was blacklisted for his “central role in the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses against Iranian citizens.” Sanctions were also imposed on the Islamic Revolution Mostazafan Foundation, or Foundation of the Oppressed, and 61 entities and individuals affiliated with the Iranian charity.
