Iran on Saturday announced sanctions against 51 Americans over the U.S. strike that killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Commander, General Qasem Soleimani.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry cited the Americans for “glorification of terrorism” and for violating “fundamental human rights” as they announced the sanctions on the heals of the second anniversary of the January 2020 strike that killed Soleimani in Baghdad.
“The said persons, as the case may be, have taken part in decision-making, organizing, financing, and carrying out the terrorist act or have otherwise justified terrorism which is a threat to the international peace and security through supporting such egregious terrorist attack,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The U.S. strike on Soleimani came days after Iranian-backed militia members stormed the U.S. embassy in Iraq.
The measure announced Saturday would permit Iranian authorities to seize any assets held in Iran. The individuals named are unlikely to be impacted by the move.
In a similar move following the first anniversary of the strike, Iran blacklisted former President Donald Trump, who ordered the fatal strike, and senior members of his administration including former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper among others.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said earlier this week that Mr. Trump must face a trial for the killing, or Iran would seek revenge.
Iranian officials expanded the list this year to include Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley and former White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien.
Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under the Trump administration, called the sanctions a “badge of honor.”
“When you get sanctioned by Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror, you know you’re doing something right,” she wrote on Twitter Saturday.
During Mrs. Haley’s tenure as ambassador, the Trump administration withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran over Iranian weapons violations and reimposed sweeping sanctions against Iranian officials and companies that had been lifted under the Obama-era agreement.
The U.S. is currently engaged in indirect talks with Iran to reenter a deal similar to the 2015 agreement.
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the Iranian president’s name.
Source:Washington Times
