Iran imposed sanctions on US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo along with several current and former members of the outgoing administration for “role in terrorist and inhumane actions against the Islamic Republic and Iranian citizens.”
The Iranian Foreign Ministry “added a number of American individuals to its sanctions list for committing terrorist crimes, promoting and supporting terrorism, which is a serious threat to regional and international peace and security, and for violating basic rules and fundamental principles of international law, including human rights,” Saeed Khatibzadeh, the ministry’s spokesman, said on Tuesday.
He said Iran’s measure was taken under a law titled “Countering America’s Human Rights Violation and Adventurous and Terrorist Actions” passed by the Iranian Parliament in 2017.
He said the sanctioned officials include Trump, Pompeo, former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, CIA Director Gina Haspel, former national security adviser John Bolton, former US envoy for Iran Brian Hook and his successor Elliot Abrams, and chief of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Andera Gacki.
The spokesperson added that Iran placed sanctions on the US officials for their involvement in the assassination of top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Suleimani and his companions in Iraq in January 2020, management of and support for acts of terror against the Islamic Republic, and creating, financing and training terrorist groups and providing them with weapons.
He said the US officials have been blacklisted for their full support for the Israeli regime’s acts of aggression against the Palestinian people, “particularly the regime’s terrorist move to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh”.
They have also been targeted for “imposing cruel, illegal and unilateral sanctions on Iran and acting deliberately to create specific living conditions for Iranians by blocking their access to food, medicine, medical services and equipment,” Khatibzadeh added.
Source: Iranian media
