US says its new sanctions target Iranian officials accused of repressing anti-regime protests

The US is imposing a new round of sanctions against Iranian officials accused of repressing nationwide protests that challenge Iran’s theocratic government.

Included in the sanctions is the secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security, whom the Treasury Department accuses of being one of the first officials to call for violence against Iranian protesters.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also designates 18 people and companies that the US says have participated in laundering money from sales of Iranian oil to foreign markets as part of a shadow banking network of sanctioned Iranian financial institutions Bank Melli and Shahr Bank.

Shadow banking refers to financial activities and institutions that act like banks but operate outside the regulations of the traditional banking system.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says that the US “stands firmly behind the Iranian people in their call for freedom and justice” and that the Treasury ”will use every tool to target those behind the regime’s tyrannical oppression of human rights.”

Among other things, the sanctions deny the people and firms access to any property or financial assets held in the US and prevent US companies and citizens from doing business with them. However, they are largely symbolic since many of them do not hold funds with US institutions.