ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced three new official policies against Iran today, including sanctions against two Iranian judges.
Speaking at a US State Department symposium called “Broken Promises: Reclaiming and Supporting Iranian Human Rights,” Pompeo contrasted his harsh criticism of the Iranian government with extensive praise for the Iranian people, casting the US government as a supporter of the Iranian public before announcing the new measures.
Directing his opening comments at the Iranian regime, Pompeo said, “If you seek stability and prosperity for a once-great nation, you must respect the commitments that you’ve made. You must respect human rights.”
He then announced three new actions “in support of the Iranian people.”
First, he re-designated Iran as a “country of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act, saying “the world should know Iran is among the world’s worst violators of basic fundamental religious freedoms.”
Second, he announced that the US Department of the Treasury is placing sanctions on two judges who preside over branches of Iran’s Revolutionary Court which typically administer harsh sentences to journalists, activists and internet users.
These sanctions were confirmed by a US Department of the Treasury press release, which stated that Abolghassem Salavati and Mohammad Moghisseh are being sanctioned for overseeing “the Iranian regime’s miscarriage of justice in show trials in which journalists, attorneys, political activists, and members of Iran’s [minority groups] were…sentenced to lengthy prison terms, lashes, and even execution.”
Both Moghisseh and Salavati, who is nicknamed “the judge of Death” in Iran, have also been sanctioned by the European Union over similar allegations about show trials and harsh sentences delivered in the wake of Iran’s 2009 presidential election.
Third, under the Immigration Nationality Act, the US is restricting the visas of “current or former Iranian officials or individuals responsible for or complicit in the abuse, detention, or killing of peaceful protesters, or for inhibiting their rights to freedom of expression or assembly.”
Pompeo said this action, which also applies to the family members of said individuals, will allow the US government to “put true pressure and hold accountable those denying freedom and justice to the people of Iran."
He also stated that the US government has received “over 36,000 pieces of information” from Iranian citizens related to government brutality against protesters, and accused the Iranian security forces of killing “possibly more than a thousand” protesters since mid-November.
Amnesty International reported on Monday that at least 304 protesters have been killed, in addition to thousands wounded, arrested and gone missing.
The protests were sparked by a steep hike in gasoline prices in Iran, but are widely viewed as the product of long-simmering anger over Iran’s increasingly desperate economic situation. Iran’s suffering economy is due in part to harsh US sanctions which were re-imposed after the US government’s unilateral withdrawal from a joint nuclear accord (the JCPOA) signed between Iran and most of the world’s major powers in 2015.
The Iranian government offered significant concessions when they signed the JCPOA, agreeing to stop enriching uranium past the capacity necessary for power generation, giving up a stockpile of highly enriched uranium and allowing international inspectors unprecedented access to verify their compliance with the nonproliferation deal.
Since the re-imposition of American sanctions, the Iranian government has systematically walked back its compliance with the JCPOA. China, Russia, France, Germany and the UK remain signatories to the accord, and recently met with Iranian representatives in Vienna in an effort to salvage the deal.
As evidenced by these latest measures, the US continues to take a hardline stance towards the Iranian government.
