US sanctions Iranian officials accused of repressing protests against the government

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is imposing a new round of sanctions against Iranian officials accused of repressing nationwide protests that challenge Iran’s theocratic government.

Included in Thursday’s sanctions is the secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security, whom the Treasury Department accuses of being one of the first officials to call for violence against Iranian protesters.

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The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also designated 18 people and companies that the U.S. says have participated in laundering money from sales of Iranian oil to foreign markets as part of a shadow banking network of sanctioned Iranian financial institutions Bank Melli and Shahr Bank.

Shadow banking refers to financial activities and institutions that act like banks but operate outside the regulations of the traditional banking system.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the U.S. “stands firmly behind the Iranian people in their call for freedom and justice” and that Treasury ”will use every tool to target those behind the regime’s tyrannical oppression of human rights.”

Among other things, the sanctions deny the people and firms access to any property or financial assets held in the U.S. and prevent U.S. companies and citizens from doing business with them. However, they are largely symbolic since many of them do not hold funds with U.S. institutions.

The demonstrations in Iran began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, as the country’s economy has been squeezed by international sanctions levied in part over its nuclear program.