NEWS: Biden administration imposes sanctions on top Iranian officials for ‘brutal’ crackdown on protests

The Biden admin­is­tra­tion has imposed sanc­tions on 14 Iran­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials for their vio­lent crack­down on protests in Iran and vowed to hold them account­able for the “bru­tal crack­down” on dis­sent. a source said on Wednesday.

The announce­ment coin­cid­ed with demon­stra­tions mark­ing the 40th anniver­sary of the death of 22-year-old Mah­sa Ami­ni, who was detained by Iran’s moral police for not fol­low­ing Iran’s strict dress code. It’s a thing.

In a state­ment announc­ing the sanc­tions, Under­sec­re­tary of the Trea­sury Bri­an Nel­son said, “Forty days after the trag­ic death of Mah­sa Ami­ni, Ira­ni­ans have brave­ly protest­ed in the face of bru­tal repres­sion and dis­rup­tion of inter­net access. con­tin­ue to do so,” he said.

“The Unit­ed States is impos­ing new sanc­tions on senior Iran­ian offi­cials who over­see orga­ni­za­tions involved in vio­lent repres­sion and killing, includ­ing of chil­dren, as part of efforts to hold Iran’s gov­ern­ment account­able for all lev­els of repression.

The Trea­sury and State Depart­ments said the sanc­tions would tar­get Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Guard com­man­ders and intel­li­gence offi­cers who took com­mand to quell the protests, prison offi­cials accused of tor­ture and oth­er ill-treat­ment of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, and peace officials.

local gov­er­nors who over­saw vio­lent crack­downs on pop­u­lar protests, as well as orga­ni­za­tions involved in “cen­sor­ship” and “sur­veil­lance” of Iran­ian citizens.

The death of Ami­ni, a woman from the coun­try’s Kur­dish com­mu­ni­ty, sparked more than a month of protests across Iran, led by women, despite mas­sive secu­ri­ty mea­sures and arrests of pro­test­ers and civ­il soci­ety activists.

The ongo­ing protests that have spread to uni­ver­si­ties, some fac­to­ries and teach­ers’ unions are an unprece­dent­ed chal­lenge to the admin­is­tra­tion’s authority.

The sanc­tions this time around mean the Biden admin­is­tra­tion is work­ing with its Euro­pean allies and oth­ers to ensure inter­net access for Ira­ni­ans and to hold Iran account­able for crack­downs on the protests, includ­ing its mem­ber­ship on the Unit­ed Nations Com­mis­sion on the Sta­tus of Women.

It’s part of a wider effort to fol­low up, admin­is­tra­tion offi­cials told NBC News.

“Push­ing”. I think we’ll see it in the next few weeks,” said the source. “Look­ing ahead, it’s a very mul­ti­fac­eted campaign.”

How­ev­er, the White House­’s response to the protests has been crit­i­cized by some Iran­ian-Amer­i­cans and oth­er activists. Wash­ing­ton is strong­ly urged to take

The Biden admin­is­tra­tion is now focus­ing on protests, not stalled nego­ti­a­tions to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world pow­ers, known as the Joint Com­pre­hen­sive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

It is said that they are match­ing. But gov­ern­ment offi­cials con­tin­ue to say they are will­ing to revive the deal, which would impose restric­tions on Iran’s nuclear pro­gram in exchange for the eas­ing of eco­nom­ic sanc­tions against Tehran.

Sec­re­tary of State Antho­ny Brinken told reporters at a Bloomberg event that it was unlike­ly that the JCPOA would go ahead giv­en Iran’s nego­ti­at­ing stance.

But he added, “It remains our deter­mi­na­tion to pre­vent Iran from acquir­ing nuclear weapons.” To that end, I con­tin­ue to believe that diplo­ma­cy is tru­ly the best and most effec­tive way. ”