US issues fresh Iran sanctions over alleged human rights violations

The United States issued a new round of Iran sanctions on Wednesday targeting 12 individuals who it said were tied to Tehran’s “ongoing, violent repression of the Iranian people,” including its “brutal crackdown on peaceful protests.”

The sanctions, which come two years after the death of Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amin in police custody, target members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iranian prison officials “and those responsible for lethal operations overseas,” the US Treasury Department said in a statement.

The Treasury Department said Iran’s security forces, including the IRGC and its Basij paramilitary force, had led a crackdown on peaceful protests in cities all over Iran.

IRGC units had used lethal force against protesters, arrested people for political expression, and attempted to intimidate the Iranian people through violence, it said.