Today, Tuesday, the United States imposed new sanctions targeting Iranian and Syrian entities and officials for what it said were "gross violations of human rights", while resuming soon crucial negotiations to save the Iranian nuclear deal.
These measures specifically target special units of the security forces responsible for maintaining order or fighting terrorism, as well as Iranian prisons and their directors, as well as the commander of the Basij forces, Gholam Reza Soleimani and others, according to a statement issued by the US Treasury Department.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that his country had imposed sanctions on Iranian and Syrian individuals and entities for committing gross violations of human rights, adding that some of those included in the sanctions list were responsible for killings and arbitrary detention.
Blinken emphasized that Washington is committed to promoting democracy and holding human rights abusers accountable around the world.
These sanctions come at a time when Tehran announced the resumption of indirect US-Iranian talks on reviving the nuclear agreement, on Thursday in Vienna, after Tehran presented new proposals that drew European and American criticism.
For his part, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said - on Twitter today, Tuesday - that the latest sanctions imposed by the United States on Iranian entities will not give a pressure card and predict a lack of seriousness and good faith.
And last September, the Treasury Department announced that it had imposed sanctions on 4 Iranian intelligence agents for being behind a "failed plot to kidnap" an American journalist and human rights activist from New York.
Last August, the United States imposed sanctions on members of an international oil smuggling network, which it said had provided support to the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.