WASHINGTON: The White House intends to introduce sanctions against elements of the Iranian regime or its supporters involved in a crackdown against countrywide protests, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.

“We are looking across the board,” the official said, pointing to authorities that allow President Donald Trump to target organizations or individuals involved in human rights violations, censorship or preventing free assembly.

“That requires information, but there is a lot of information out there, so we intend to start assembling that and see what we can do.”

The official, who asked for anonymity, said the United States would “use all the information sources at our disposal to be able to get actionable information about who is doing the crackdown, who is violating human rights, who is using violence against protesters and to feed that in to our sanctions designation machinery.”

Meanwhile, a senior official has said the US may seek an emergency session at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva over the ongoing situation in Iran.