As the people of Iran bravely take to the streets to demand basic freedoms and economic security, President Donald Trump is keeping his promise to stand with them against their oppressors.
On January 15 the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action against the architects of the Iranian regime’s violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators. OFAC also took action against the shadow banking networks that allow Iran’s elite to steal and launder revenue generated by the country’s natural resources.
“At the direction of President Trump, the Treasury Department is sanctioning key Iranian leaders involved in the brutal crackdown against the Iranian people.” Said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “Treasury will use every tool to target those behind the regime’s tyrannical oppression of human rights.”
Among the Iranian security officials sanctioned is Ali Larijani, the Secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security (SCNS). Larijani was one of the first Iranian leaders to call for violence in response to the legitimate demands of the Iranian people.
OFAC is also designating 18 individuals and entities who play critical roles in laundering the proceeds of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical sales to foreign markets as part of the clandestine “shadow banking” networks of sanctioned Iranian financial institutions Bank Melli and Shahr Bank.
Since the protests started in December 2025, Iran’s security forces have fired live ammunition at protesters, depriving the Iranian people of life and liberty. Elements of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have even attacked wounded protesters in one hospital in Ilam Province, firing tear gas and metal pellets into the hospital grounds and assaulting patients, family members, and medical workers. The officials sanctioned -and their organizations — bear responsibility for the thousands of deaths and injuries of their fellow citizens as protests erupted in each of these provinces.
Mohammad Reza Hashemifar serves as the commander of the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) in Lorestan Province. Nematollah Bagheri is the IRGC commander of Lorestan Province. Iranian security forces in Lorestan Province have committed multiple atrocities targeting Iranian civilians.
Azizollah Maleki and Yadollah Buali serve as the LEF and IRGC commanders for Fars Province, Security forces in Fars Province have killed countless peaceful demonstrators since the beginning of protests in December 2025, and Shiraz hospitals are so inundated with gunshot wound patients that no other types of patients can be admitted. Families of the killed have been forced to give false testimony on national television to support the regime’s narratives, lest their loved ones’ bodies never be returned.
This violence and oppression by the Iranian regime must stop.
“The United States stands firmly behind the Iranian people in their call for freedom and justice,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.
