Iranian regime foreign minister Javad Zarif (Right), meeting with the commander of the Qods Force Qassem Soleimani. Based on the Treasury department’s announcement, Zarif will also be included in the list of Iranian regime sanctioned officials this week.

On Monday, the US announced that it would impose fresh sanctions on the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader and other senior officials.

US President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he would be tightening the pressure on the Iranian regime. The new sanctions exclude Khamenei and commanders in the Iranian military from US financial institutions. They also restrict access to their assets in the US.

The president called the measures a “strong and proportionate response to Iran’s increasingly provocative actions.” He also reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to ensuring that the Iranian regime will never develop a nuclear weapon. While he also maintained that the US was not seeking a conflict with the regime, adding “we do not ask for conflict”.

Senior Regime Officials Affected

In addition to the Supreme Leader, regime Foreign Minister Javad Zarif will also be blocked from accessing assets in US financial institutions. Eight commanders from the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) were also included in the blacklist.

According to the Trump administration, the sanctions will see “billions” of dollars’ worth of assets frozen.

The Iranian opposition Position on New Sanctions

Trump’s announcement was met warmly by members of the Iranian opposition movement. The President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Maryam Rajavi also reflected on the news on her Twitter account:

“Sanctioning Khamenei & his office, the epicenter of crime, corruption & terrorism in Iran, is spot-on and most imperative,” she said.

Alireza Jafarzedah, the deputy director of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in the US, also welcomed the move. He reminded his followers that the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) called for the sanction of senior regime officials, including the Supreme Leader himself, in its May 1^st press conference in Washington D.C.

He went on to call the sanctions “a step in the right direction.”

The NCRI and MEK played an instrumental role in demonstrating the Javad Zarif connection to Iranian state-sponsored terror. In 2018, the group revealed a web of terror that had spread across Europe and the US. This elaborate terror network received orders to carry out bomb attacks and assassinations from senior figures in the regime, including Zarif, President Hassan Rouhani and the Supreme Leader.

Where Next?

In her post, Maryam Rajavi laid out her calls for the next step to oppose the regime’s terror mechanism and human rights abuses. She called on the US government to expand existing sanctions to include the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS).

The MOIS was behind a string of failed terror attacks in 2018, including the planned detonation of a car bomb in Paris and a bomb attack on the MEK’s compound in Albania.

The leader of Iran’s opposition had previously called for blacklisting of the MOIS in addition to other steps as solutions to prevent the expansion of the Iranian regime’s terrorism:

Staff writer