The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control today imposed sanctions on 14 individuals and entities for their links to serious human rights and censorship violations in Iran and to support Iranian weapons programs. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a press release today that the United States would not stand idly by while the Iranian regime continued to engage in human rights abuses and injustice. "We are targeting the Iranian regime, including the head of the Iranian judiciary, for its horrific abuse of its citizens, including prisoners, solely for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful gathering and for censoring their people as they protest peacefully against their government," he said. The United States also targets Iran's ballistic missile program and its destabilizing activities rather than working to advance the economic well-being of the Iranian people, Mnuchin added. The sanctions included Iran's judiciary chief Sadeq Larijani, a Chinese citizen, a China-based company and an Iranian company.
