TEHRAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st May, 2020) The new sanctions imposed by the United States on Iranian officials show Washington's "weakness and desperation," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Thursday, adding that this step had come after the previous anti-Iranian measures taken by the US failed.
On Wednesday, the US imposed sanctions on Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, several law enforcement officials and the country's prisons, over alleged human rights abuses. In total, nine Iranian citizens and three organizations associated with the country's law enforcement agencies were targeted. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in turn, said that the latest US sanctions send a message of support to the Iranian people and stressed that Washington's pressure on Iran would continue.
"The futile, repetitive, and blind sanctions imposed by the US regime against the interior minister, the commander of the Law Enforcement, and other officials of our country indicate the weakness, desperation, and confusion of the US regime," Mousavi said in an official statement published by the Foreign Ministry.
According to the spokesman, the US' latest restrictive measures have been introduced against those who guarantee order and security in the country, and Washington was forced to expand the list of sanctions, as "the previous bans were totally inefficient."
The spokesman added that the recent US sanctions constituted "another" blatant violation of the UN Security Council Resolution 2231, calling on the international community to hold the US accountable for such actions.
The US has enforced a policy of so-called maximum pressure on Iran since 2018 when the US withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear deal it had eached together with Iran, Russia, China, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the European Union in 2015.
