The day before Iran's elections, Washington punished five officials of the Guardian Council

Brian Hook, the US special envoy to Iran, announced that his country imposed sanctions on five officials of the Iranian Guardian Council, saying that they "deprived the Iranians of free and fair elections." The council described the American move as a blatant interference in Iran's internal affairs.

The US envoy stated at a press conference that among those who were sanctioned included the Secretary of the Guardian Council, Ahmed Jannati, and a member of the Council and the former head of the judiciary Muhammad Yazdi, as well as three other members of the Supervision Committee.

The Guardian Council is the institution overseeing the conduct of the elections, from approval of applications for candidacy to ratification of election results.

Exclude candidates
In a statement, the US Treasury said it had imposed sanctions on officials because of the council’s role in excluding thousands of candidates. These sanctions freeze any assets of those officials in the United States, and prevent Americans from conducting business transactions with them.

"The Trump administration will not allow tampering with the elections to facilitate the malicious regime of the regime," Minister Stephen Mnuchin said in a statement, adding that the new sanctions "reveal senior regime officials who are responsible for preventing the Iranian people from freely choosing their leaders."

On the other hand, the Iranian Guardian Council condemned the American decision, describing Brian Hook's statements as delusions and blatant interference in Tehran's internal affairs. The council added that the US envoy's statements "confirm that Washington has a vague and wrong vision of Iran and its elections."

The new US sanctions come a day before about 58 million Iranians went to the polls tomorrow morning to choose their representatives in the 290-seat parliament.