The U.S. has slapped two more Iranian officials with sanctions to protest human rights violations in Iran.
Commander Mohammadreza Naqdi, the head of the Revolutionary Corps’ Basij Forces, and Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi have been added to the U.S. Treasury blacklist. Any American assets they have will be frozen, and both men are forbidden from carrying out any transactions in the U.S. They are also barred from receiving a visa to travel to the U.S.
Eight other Iranian officials were placed on the U.S. blacklist for “human rights violations and oppression of protesters in the post-election events of Iran.
In an exclusive interview with Radio Zamaneh, Philo Dibble, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Iran, said these sanctions are largely symbolic, since the targeted individuals probably have no U.S. assets and are not planning to travel there anytime soon. However, Dibble said it is important not to just “make statements on behalf of the victims of persecution or repression, but also to identify and point to those who are doing the persecuting and who are responsible for the repression.”
Dibble added that the sanctions were, therefore, significant because it “is also something that we have not done before. We have not named and shamed in the case of Iran. And I think it is important to do that for the sake of justice.”
Iranian authorities, however, deny U.S. charges of human rights violations in Iran and accuse the West of interfering in its domestic issues.
