The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated 14 individuals and entities for sanctions arising from serious human rights abuses and censorship in Iran and support of designated Iranian weapons proliferators. According to Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin, “The United States will not stand by while the Iranian regime continues to engage in human rights abuses and injustice. We are targeting the Iranian regime, including the head of Iran’s judiciary, for its appalling mistreatment of its citizens, including those imprisoned solely for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly, and for censoring its own people as they stand up in protest against their government. We are also targeting Iran’s ballistic missile program and destabilizing activities, which it continues to prioritize over the economic well-being of the Iranian people.”
While the majority of these persons and entities are Iranian, several are located in Malaysia and China and have been sanctioned for their support of the Iranian regime. The full list is available on Treasury’s website. This decision is not formally related to an expected Trump administration announcement later today regarding an extension of the relaxation of sanctions on Iran under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (i.e., JCPOA or Iran nuclear agreement) but indicates that the United States will continue to sanction Iran in non-nuclear areas outside the scope of the JCPOA.