“Iran not only exports terrorism and instability across the world, it routinely violates the rights of its own people,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a release. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Treasury slaps new sanctions on groups linked to Iran regime

The Trump administration has imposed new financial sanctions on a political group allied with Iran’s supreme leader, as well as individuals and companies the Treasury Department says are complicit with human rights abuses in the country.

It’s the latest round of sanctions targeting individuals and organizations with ties to Iran’s government following President Donald Trump’s exit from the nuclear deal earlier this month. Trump vowed to check what Treasury called Iran’s “malign behavior.”


“Iran not only exports terrorism and instability across the world, it routinely violates the rights of its own people,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a release announcing the sanctions.

The political group the administration sanctioned, Ansar-e Hizballah, supports Iran’s top political and religious official, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and has been tied to the violent suppression of Iranian citizens, including street attacks against protesters.

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The Office of Foreign Assets Control, the section of the Treasury charged with enforcing sanctions, also announced financial penalties against a prison where the Iranian regime reportedly holds and tortures political opponents.

In addition, a telecommunications company that allegedly distributed fake versions of a supposedly secure messaging application to allow spying on dissidents by Iran’s security services was targeted, as was the director of the Iranian government’s broadcasting company.

“Those who speak out against the regime’s mismanagement and corruption are subject to abuse and mistreatment in Iran’s prisons,” Mnuchin said. “America stands with the people of Iran, and Treasury is taking action to hold the Iranian regime accountable for ongoing human rights abuses, censorship, and other despicable acts it commits against its own citizens.”