U.S. sanctions Iranian officials over violent crackdown on protests

The United States imposed new sanctions on senior Iranian officials and financial networks tied to Tehran’s crackdown on anti-government protests, targeting security leaders and shadow banking operations accused of enabling repression and sanctions evasion, according to the Treasury Department.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury said on Thursday that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned key figures involved in directing Iran’s response to protests that began in December, as well as individuals and entities linked to clandestine financial networks used to launder revenue from Iranian petroleum and petrochemical sales.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the actions were taken at the direction of President Donald Trump.

Among those sanctioned is Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council for National Security, whom Treasury said was among the first officials to call for violence against protesters and coordinated the regime’s response on behalf of Iran’s supreme leader.

OFAC also designated 18 individuals and entities accused of playing critical roles in laundering proceeds from Iranian oil and petrochemical exports through so-called “shadow banking” networks linked to Bank Melli and Shahr Bank.

Treasury said Iranian security forces have fired live ammunition at protesters since demonstrations began, and that elements of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have attacked wounded protesters and medical staff, including at a hospital in Ilam Province.

Officials sanctioned also include regional commanders of Iran’s law enforcement forces and the IRGC in Lorestan and Fars provinces, which Treasury said were sites of widespread violence against civilians, mass casualties, and intimidation of victims’ families.

Treasury said the funds generated through the targeted financial networks were used to finance domestic repression and support for militant groups abroad, rather than to address Iran’s economic crisis, inflation, and deficits.

The designations block the sanctioned individuals and entities from accessing U.S. assets and generally prohibit Americans from engaging in transactions with them.

“The United States stands firmly behind the Iranian people in their call for freedom and justice,” Bessent said. “Treasury will use every tool to target those behind the regime’s tyrannical oppression of human rights.”