UK imposes further sanctions on Iranian officials

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - The British foreign secretary on Monday announced new sanctions on Iranian officials and entity in response to the execution of dual British-Iranian national Alireza Akbari.

UK Foreign Office said in a statement that these new sanctions were designated in coordination with the EU and the US that demonstrated the "international community’s unified condemnation of the horrific violence the Iranian regime is inflicting on its own people, including the execution of dual British-Iranian national Alireza Akbari."

Sanctions, include Kiyumars Heidari, commander in chief of Iran's ground forces; Hossein Nejat, deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC); Basij Resistance Force as well as Salar Abnoush, deputy commander of the Basij.

The statement added that it has also placed sanctions on the country's Deputy Prosecutor General Ahmad Fazelian.

"Those sanctioned today, from the judicial figures using the death penalty for political ends to the thugs beating protestors on the streets, are at the heart of the regime’s brutal repression of the Iranian people," said Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

UK and its partners have sent "a clear message" through these sanctions, he added.

"The UK has now imposed 50 new sanctions in response to human rights violations by the Iranian regime since Mahsa Amini’s death and will continue to take a wide range of actions to hold the regime to account," added Cleverly.