US imposes sanctions on Iran due to continued crackdown in Kurdish areas

“The abuses being committed in Iran against protestors, including most recently in Mahabad, must stop.”
Iranians in Greece lit candles to commemorate the death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, 22, in this file photo from October 29, 2022 (Photo: Louisa GOULIAMAKI AFP/File)
Iranians in Greece lit candles to commemorate the death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, 22, in this file photo from October 29, 2022 (Photo: Louisa GOULIAMAKI AFP/File)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Monday designated three Iranian security officials for the Iranian regime’s continued crackdown on ongoing protests throughout the country, including most recently in Kurdish areas. 

Read More: Activists express fear of major Iran crackdown in Kurdish-populated town

“The Iranian regime is reportedly targeting and gunning down its own children, who have taken to the street to demand a better future,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. “The abuses being committed in Iran against protestors, including most recently in Mahabad, must stop.”

Since countrywide protests erupted after the death in custody of Jina Amini on Sept. 16 September 2022, the Kurdish cities in northwestern Iran, such as Sanandaj and Mahabad, "have faced a particularly severe security response", the US Treasury said.

The sanctions targeted key city officials of Sanandaj: Hassan Asgari (Asgari), the governor of Sanandaj, and Alireza Moradi (Moradi), the commander of LEF forces in Sanandaj. Moreover, it targeted also Mohammad Taghi Osanloo (Osanloo), the IRGC Ground Forces commander that oversees Iran’s West Azerbaijan province.

Today, Kurdish parties organized a general strike in Kurdish cities in Iran in protest of the crackdown that has cost several lives in Kurdish cities.

Read More: US imposes new sanctions on Iran—for third time this week

Last week, the US announced a new set of sanctions on Iran, targeting the evasion of previous sanctions related to Iranian petrochemical and petroleum exports to China.

The White House has earlier also voiced its support for the new, wide-ranging sanctions announced on Nov. 14 by the European Union (EU) and Britain on Iran for its harsh repression of those protests.

Iran has strongly condemned the sanctions.

Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry, on Nov. 15 called the EU and British sanctions against certain Iranian individuals and businesses "unjustified, illegitimate, and interventionist" and strongly condemned them, the Teheran Times reported.