US sanctions Iranian officials over protest crackdown, IRGC funding

WASHINGTON — The US Treasury Department on Friday imposed sanctions on a group of six Iranian officials it said were responsible for this month’s violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.

The move comes as President Donald Trump weighs military action against Iran after mass protests left thousands dead at the hands of Iranian security forces. The New York Times reported on Friday that the Pentagon has presented Trump with options that include US forces carrying out raids on sites inside Iran.

The targets included Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni Kalagari, who oversees the country’s Law Enforcement Forces, Majid Khademi, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Intelligence Organization and Ghorban Mohammad Valizadeh, the commander of the IRGC’s Seyyad al-Shohada Corps in Tehran province.

The sanctions follow the European Union’s decision Thursday to label the IRGC as a terrorist group. Trump designated the entity as a foreign terrorist organization in his first term.

Also blacklisted was Babak Morteza Zanjani, whom the Treasury describes as a criminal Iranian investor who previously embezzled billions of dollars in Iranian oil revenue and has provided financial backing for the regime and the IRGC. The department designated two UK-registered digital asset exchanges that are connected to Zanjani and have allegedly processed funds for wallets linked to the IRGC.

“Like rats on a sinking ship, the regime is frantically wiring funds stolen from Iranian families to banks and financial institutions around the world,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Rest assured, Treasury will act.”

The protest movement began in Tehran’s central bazaar over economic grievances in late December and spread to all of Iran’s 31 provinces before it was violently crushed under an internet blackout.

This developing story has been updated since initial publication.