October 30, 2020
The Judiciary says it is sanctioning 45 American officials who have been involved in imposing “cruel and inhuman” sanctions on the Iranian people.
It said the list (at right) was compiled by the Judiciary’s Supreme Council on Human Rights and the names have been turned over to the Tehran prosecutor to take the Americans to court in Tehran.
One oddity of the announcement was that when the US issues sanctions, Iran frequently says it is illegal to do so. But here is is now imposing sanctions.
The list that was released is published here. There are only 44 names, however, not 45. The Iran Times googled a number of the names and came up with references to nine as State Department employees. For most of those googled, there were no results.
Three of the nine names the Iran Times found with the State Department were security officers assigned to protect embassies and diplomats, not to have anything to do with Iran policy. One was identified as working in the State Department personnel office, again not a position that deals with Iran policy. The other five held diplomatic positions and were involved with Iran at times in their careers. The only name that would be familiar to Iran Times readers would be that of Alan Eyre, who, for a few years, was the State Depart-ment’s Farsi-speaking spokesman.
Iran’s Judiciary did not explain how it came up with the list. Many of the people sanctioned by the United States are not sanctioned by the State Department but by the Treasury Department, which is understood to pick the names of those it sanctions.