Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said: “These individuals are linked to a wide range of malign behaviors by the regime, including bombings of the US Marine Barracks in Beirut in 1983 and the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association in 1994, as well as torture, extrajudicial killings, and repression of civilians. This action further constricts the Supreme Leader’s ability to execute his agenda of terror and oppression.”

The US wants to block funds from reaching a shadow network of Khamenei’s military and foreign affairs advisors in the Office of the Supreme Leader, the Expediency Council, the Armed Forces General Staff, and the Judiciary, who support terrorism, destabilize the world and oppress the Iranian people.

The nine sanctioned, all for being appointed by or acting on behalf of Khamenei, are:

  • Ebrahim Raisi, the head of Iran regime’s Judiciary, who served on the 1988 Death Commissions that sent 30,000 political prisoners to their deaths in the 1988 Iranian massacre.
  • Mojtaba Khamenei, Khamenei’s second son, who worked closely with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and the Basij Resistance Force, both groups that are sanctioned by the US, to advance his father’s regional destruction and domestic oppression.
  • Mohammadi Golpayegani, the Supreme Leader’s Chief of Staff, who has helped to direct and enforce the Regime’s oppression of followers of the Baha’i religion, including preventing them from attending universities or take up employment in the government.
  • Vahid Haghanian, who is an executive deputy for the Supreme Leader and is described as Khamenei’s right hand.
  • Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to the Supreme Leader who has helped the regime to fund the brutal Bashar Assad regime in Syria through several investment and oil agreements. Velayati has also been charged in Argentina in connection with the 1994 Argentine Israelite Mutual Association bombing that killed 85 people.
  • Gholam-Ali Hadad-Adel, who is the father-in-law of Mojtaba Khamenei, a member of the Expediency Council, and an advisor to Khamenei
  • IRGC Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan, who is Khamenei’s military aide for the Defense Industries and Armed Forces Logistics. He was also the IRGC commander in Lebanon and Syria in 1983 when the Marine compound in Beirut, was bombed and 241 US troops were killed.
  • IRGC commander Gholam Ali Rashid, who is the commander of the most important military headquarters in Iran, Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters
  • IRGC General Mohammad Bagheri, who is the chief of the most senior military body in Iran, Armed Forces General Staff (AFGS). (AFGS is also being sanctioned.)

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote: “The revolutionary regime in Tehran has proven, time and again, that its first acts after gaining power were a clear indication of its evil character. The regime continues to unjustly detain Americans and to support terrorist proxy groups like Hezbollah that engage in hostage-taking… While the Iranian regime’s decision to jail our diplomats have cast a 40-year shadow over our relations, the United States knows that the longest-suffering victims of the Iranian regime are the Iranian people. We wish nothing more for them than a future with a truly representative government and friendship with the American people.”