The United States announced on Thursday to impose sanctions on officials of the Iranian election supervisory body, after excluding thousands of candidates for Friday's legislative elections.

According to a memo published today on the US Treasury Department website, the United States imposed sanctions on five Iranians in its latest action against Tehran.

The ministry said it had imposed sanctions on the influential religious official of the Guardian Council, Ahmad Jannati, a member of the Iranian Leadership Experts Council, Muhammad Yazdi, Abbas Ali Kadkhadi, Siamak Rahbek, and Hassan Sadaghi Moghaddam.

"The Trump administration will not allow the elections to be manipulated to facilitate the malicious system of the regime," said US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin in a statement.

A note posted Thursday, on the US Treasury Department website, gave the names of the Iranian figures.

The US memo stated that punishing Iranian officials forbid free and fair elections.

In a press briefing in Washington, Thursday, US Special Envoy to Iran, Brian Hook, said that the Guardian Council includes 12 experts who decide who has the right to run in Friday's elections in Iran.

According to Hook, the council prevented more than 7,000 applicants to participate, as well as 90 members of Parliament from re-running.

He accused the president of the Guardian Council, Jannati, of having helped the system for 40 years for the oppression of the people.

The envoy described the Iranian elections, Friday, as just a political play in light of the isolation of more than half of the candidates, stressing that its results are known in advance.

Hook confirmed that millions of Iranians will boycott the elections, explaining that America will continue to punish, expose and expose Iranian officials.

He demanded that the Iranian regime respect the aspirations of the Iranian people, accusing it of practicing a policy of repression and spending money on foreign crises.