Trump administration officials unveiled new sanctions against five Iranian companies on Thursday as the White House continued to support protestors who have spent more than a week staging demonstrations against the Iranian government.
“These sanctions target key entities involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program, which the Iranian regime prioritizes over the economic well-being of the Iranian people," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement on Thursday.
"As the Iranian people suffer, their government and the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] fund foreign militants, terrorist groups, and human rights abuses,” Mnuchin said. “The United States will continue to decisively counter the Iranian regime’s malign activity, including additional sanctions targeting human rights abuses."
President Trump has long criticized the Iranian government for what he described as its disregard for the spirit of the nuclear deal his predecessor struck. Trump has also slammed the deal itself, calling it poorly negotiated and blaming it for the previous administration's disregard for corruption in Tehran.
"We will not hesitate to call out the regime’s economic mismanagement, and diversion of significant resources to fund threatening missile systems at the expense of its citizenry," Mnuchin said.
