U.S. Sanctions Key Iranians Reporting to Supreme Leader

By Josh Wingrove

The U.S. used the 40th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis to sanction key officials reporting to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, including his son, and called on the Islamic Republic to release Americans believed to be held in the country.

The U.S. said Monday that the officials include those involved in terrorist attacks in Lebanon and Argentina. Three Trump administration officials, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, also announced a $20 million reward for information leading to the return of American Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in 2007.

“Today the Treasury Department is targeting the unelected officials who surround Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and implement his destabilizing policies,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “These individuals are linked to a wide range of malign behaviors by the regime, including bombings of the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut in 1983 and the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association in 1994, as well as torture, extrajudicial killings, and repression of civilians.”

The move comes as tensions between Washington and Tehran remain high over the breakdown of the 2015 Iran nuclear accord and military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf region. Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi on Monday said Iran has increased the number of advanced centrifuges it is running to enrich uranium and additional milestones in the country’s nuclear program may be announced later this week.

Iran has been scaling back its compliance with the beleaguered 2015 deal since May as it resists the “maximum pressure” offensive of President Donald Trump, who unilaterally left the accord last year and later imposed sweeping economic sanctions including the total ban on oil sales.

But the troubled history between the two countries dates back to at least the Carter administration.

The taking of more than 50 diplomats at the American embassy in Tehran in November 1979 became a defining moment in U.S.-Iran relations for more than a generation. The two countries have not had diplomatic relations since the hostage crisis, which ended 444 days after it began.

Among those targeted for inclusion on Treasury’s sanctions list on Monday are Ebrahim Raisi, the head of the country’s judiciary, for involvement in cracking down on public protests in 2009, according to the statement. Also designated was Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, the Supreme Leader’s chief of staff, and Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to the Supreme Leader who Treasury said helped the Iranian regime extend credit lines to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of the leader, was targeted “for representing the Supreme Leader in an official capacity despite never being elected or appointed to a government position aside from work in the office of his father.”

With an economic crisis looming, Iran announced on May 8 it would gradually withdraw from the nuclear agreement unless the remaining parties find a way to ease its pain. It first stopped complying with a 300-kilogram cap on the storage of enriched uranium and heavy water imposed by the multilateral accord, and then broke the 3.67% limit on uranium purity.

While officials have said the country will “set aside” restrictions on uranium enrichment, it has so far held off enriching to anywhere near 20%, the level required for research reactors. Weapons-grade uranium needs to have an enrichment level of 90% or higher.

Photo: Tasnim