US imposed sanctions on Iran’s foreign minister, Mohamad Javad Zarif, late Wednesday in an attempt to maximum its pressures on Tehran.
“Zarif implements the reckless agenda of Iran’s Supreme Leader, and is the regime’s primary spokesperson around the world. The United States is sending a clear message to the Iranian regime that its recent behavior is completely unacceptable,” Steven Mnuchin, the US Treasury Secretary, said in a statement.
The sanctions against Zarif freeze any of his assets in the United States or any area controlled by US entities.
Washington is reportedly seeking to limit the diplomat’s international travels.
“Foreign Minister Zarif, a senior regime official and apologist, has for years been complicit in the Iranian regime’s malign activities,” the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote in a tweet.
A US Senator for Republicans, Lindsey Graham, has also welcomed the decision and said, “Zarif is the face and voice of the leading state-sponsor of terrorism on the planet. He should be labeled based on who and what he is—not the image he seeks to project.”
