The United States has imposed sanctions on five Iranian officials a day before parliamentary elections in Iran that have been overshadowed by the exclusion of moderate candidates.
The Treasury Department said on Thursday.
The U.S action targets members of Iran’s powerful Guardian Council, which is responsible for choosing which candidates are eligible to run for election, and its Elections Supervision Committee.
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All are appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“The Supreme Leader uses his appointees to deprive the Iranian people of free and fair elections by blocking candidates that do not mirror his radical views,’’ the Treasury said in a news release.
The department said it sanctioned Ahmad Jannati, secretary of the Guardian Council, Mohammad Yazdi, a council member, and Siamak Rahpeyk, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, and Mohammad Hasan Sadeghi Moghadam, all members of the Elections Supervisory Committee.
The sanctions block their U.S property and interests and prohibit any dealings with them.
In the elections planned for Friday in Iran, more than 7,000 candidates will run for 290 seats in parliament.
The Council of Guardians removed thousands of mostly moderate and reform-orientated candidates from the campaign, without any explanation.
“The Trump administration will not tolerate the manipulation of elections to favour the regime’s malign agenda, and this action exposes those senior regime officials responsible for preventing the Iranian people from freely choosing their leaders,”
U.S Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have steadily escalated since Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and started a maximum pressure campaign of reposing sanctions against Iran.(dpa)
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