US Sanctions Over Iranian Elections Show Washington’s ‘Maximum Pressure’ Policy is Failing: Tehran

According to Abbas Mousavi, the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the restrictive measures by Washington are ‘insane’. He called on the United States to abandon the ‘language of sanctions’ in relation to Tehran.

“Those who have imposed sanctions, economic terrorism and maximum pressure on more than 83 million Iranians, have not succeeded in their actions,” he added, saying, “They are now desperately targeting the electoral body in Iran, and this shows how much they fear democracy and popular participation in Iran.”

Mousavi noted, “The government, the nation and all the pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran do not care about the US and its cruel and violent sanctions.”

“Iran’s strategy against the US maximum pressure is maximum resistance, and it is Americans who will finally bow down to the will of the Iranian people,” he added.

Washington announced new sanctions against five members of the Guardians Council, including Ayatollah Jannati, on Thursday.

US special representative for Iran, Brian Hook, announced the sanctions a day before the 11th parliamentary elections in Iran.

The Treasury Department said in a statement on Friday that it imposed sanctions on the members of Iran’s Guardian Council and its Elections Supervision Committee over the council’s role in disqualifying the candidates.

The US sanctions targeted Ayatollah Jannati, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a member of Iran’s Guardian Council who was formerly Iran’s first Judiciary Chief, and three members of the Elections Supervisory Committee, according to Reuters.

The bans freeze any American-held assets of the officials and generally bar American citizens from doing business with them.