US sanctions two Iranian officials for ‘gross rights violations’

Biden administration move bars two members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from entering the US.

The United States has sanctioned two officials from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for alleged involvement in human rights violations against Iranian political prisoners and protesters. In a statement on Tuesday, the US State Department said Ali Hemmatian and Masoud Safdari, whom it described as IRGC interrogators, and their immediate families would be barred from entering the country. The department accused the pair of being involved “in gross violations of human rights, namely the torture and/or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of political prisoners and persons detained during protests in 2019 and 2020 in Iran”.