US Treasury sanctions Khamenei’s son & Iran’s General Staff on 40th anniversary of American embassy takeover in Tehran

Nine people, including the son of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, were blacklisted by the US on the 40th anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.

The new round of sanctions against Tehran were announced on the US Treasury Department’s website.

Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, is an influential religious and political figure in the country, with European sources previously mentioning his name among the possible successors of his father as Iranian supreme leader.

Iran’s head of judiciary and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s chief of staff were also among those who fell under American restrictions.

On top of that, the said restrictions targeted unelected officials from Ali Khamenei’s inner circle, who have been helping the supreme leader “implement his destabilizing policies,” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

Those on the list were linked to being involved in the bombings of the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 and the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association in 1994, as well as torture, extrajudicial killings and repressions, he claimed. The sanctions freeze all US assets of the restricted individuals and forbids American entities from doing business with them.

Washington has been increasing the sanction pressure on Tehran since Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the landmark nuclear deal with Iran last May. The US wants Tehran to sign a new agreement that would also include its ballistic missile developments. Iran remains reluctant to engage in talks, saying they will yield no results as Washington is prawn to easily changing its mind on any deal it had signed before.

Thousands of people took to the streets across Iran on Monday to celebrate 40 anniversary of the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran. They chanted “Death to America” and burnt the US national flags.On November 4, 1979, hundreds of Iranian students took over the mission with 52 US diplomats inside and initiated a 444 day-long hostage crisis.

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