Iran issued a statement denouncing the US administration’s fresh sanctions on Iranian officials and institutions over human rights abuse allegations. Posting a message on his Twitter account, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh stated that the US moves include oppositeness.
In the statement, Khatibzadeh said, “The US fails to understand that ‘maximum pressure’ and a ‘diplomatic breakthrough’ are mutually exclusive.”
Harshly criticizing the latest wave of sanctions, Khatibzadeh emphasized that “doubling down on sanctions will not create leverage, … and is anything but seriousness and goodwill.”
The US Treasury Department announced the sanctions on Tuesday. Andrea Gacki, director of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, said, “The Treasury will continue to defend against authoritarianism, promoting accountability for the violent repression of people seeking to exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
Within the scope of the latest waves of sanctions, nine Iranian individuals and four entities were placed sanctions. Among them, the Special Units of Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces and Counter-Terror Special Forces and several of their officials, and Gholamreza Soleimani, one of the prominent commanders, were listed.
Two prisons in Zahedan and Isfahan provinces and the prison director of Tehran were also targeted by the new US sanctions.
The US move came after the latest round of talks between Iran and other parties to the JCPOA in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear deal was ended without any breakthrough.
According to Iranian media, the head of Iran’s nuclear team Ali Bagheri and EU official Enrique Mora, who coordinates the talks, agreed that the talks would resume on Thursday.
