The Chief of General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces says he is going to file a suit against the U.S. Treasury for blacklisting him.
General Hassan Firouzabadi told the Fars News Agency on Sunday: “I want to file suit against the U.S. Treasury to see in what way they oppose humanitarian service and efforts for national security and regard them as a crime.”
He added: “I am a physician and a faculty member at the university and I have spent all the years of my life in scientific research as well as humanitarian efforts and pursuing world peace.”
Last December, the U.S. Treasury put Firouzabadi on its blacklist, along with the deputy head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps land forces, Abdollah Araghi, which means the two are banned from travelling to the United States and any assets they may have in American banks are frozen.
Firouzabadi cited his years of service in development and aid delivery in the Red Crescent Society of Iran, as well as the plans he devised to reduce the impact of war on families during Iran-Iraq War.
“The United States must be held responsible for such unjustified and baseless actions,” Iran’s Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces said.
The U.S. sanctions laid against Firouzabadi were put in place under a provision that allows the U.S. authorities to blacklist officials that were involved in Iran’s crackdown on protesters following the 2009 presidential election.
