U.S. hits Iran with more sanctions over Mahsa Amini death

The U.S. has imposed more sanctions on Iranian government officials in response to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini

The U.S. on Thursday imposed more sanctions on Iranian government officials in response to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, as protests have embroiled dozens of Iranian cities for weeks and evolved into the most widespread challenge to Iran’s leadership in years.

U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated seven high-ranking leaders for financial penalties due to the shutdown of Iran’s internet, repression of speech and violence inflicted on protesters and civilians. Iran's interior and communications ministers and several law enforcement leaders were targeted for sanctions.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the sanctions demonstrate the “United States stands with the brave citizens and the brave women of Iran who right now are demonstrating to secure their basic rights.”

And Brian Nelson, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in announcing the sanctions that “the rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly are vital to guaranteeing individual liberty and dignity.”

U.S. support of freedom in Iran, however, further undermines efforts to salvage the languishing 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, would provide Tehran with billions in sanctions relief in exchange for the agreeing to roll back its nuclear program.

How the administration can credibly side with a protest movement while hoping to strike a nuclear deal with a regime it accuses of engaging in human rights abuses is a question that has resonated through the halls of Congress.

“President Biden simply cannot offer the prospect of sanctions relief and de facto legitimize a regime that is ruthlessly gunning down its own citizens in the street,” said Marjan Keypour Greenblatt, director of a network of activists that promotes human rights in Iran and a nonresident scholar with the Middle East Institute’s Iran Program.