US puts additional sanctions on Iran over the crackdown on demonstrators.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The US imposed sanctions on five Iranian officials accused of being behind the protest crackdown on Thursday, and warned that it was watching Iranian leaders’ finances being sent to banks throughout the world as US President Donald Trump’s administration increased pressure on Iran.

The US Treasury Department announced sanctions against the Secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security, as well as leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and law enforcement forces, accusing them of orchestrating the crackdown.

In a video released on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington’s message to Iran’s authorities was clear: “The US Treasury knows that, like rats on a sinking ship, you are frantically wiring funds stolen from Iranian families to banks and financial institutions around the world.” Rest assured that we will follow both them and you.”

“But there is still time, if you choose to join us. As President Trump has stated, “Stop the violence and stand with the Iranian people.”

The unrest in Iran began with rallies about rising costs before escalating into one of the most serious threats to the religious leadership since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The US-based HRANA rights group claims to have confirmed the deaths of 2,435 demonstrators and 153 government officials.

Trump has often promised to intervene on behalf of demonstrators in Iran, where the religious regime has clamped down on countrywide unrest since December 28.

“The United States stands firmly behind the Iranian people in their call for freedom and justice,” Bessent said in the statement.

“Treasury will use every tool to target those behind the regime’s tyrannical oppression of human rights.”

The Treasury also sanctioned 18 persons it accused of laundering the revenues of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical sales to overseas markets using “shadow banking” networks run by sanctioned Iranian financial institutions.

Thursday’s measure is the latest move against Tehran since Trump reinstated his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, which includes efforts to reduce Tehran’s oil exports to zero and prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon.