US must sanction Iran’s major human rights abusers

The Trump administration has repeatedly condemned Iran for its domestic repression, but it can do much more. To hold the Islamic Republic accountable and express solidarity with Iranians seeking reform, Washington should continue sanctioning the regime’s most egregious human rights violators.

By naming and shaming Iran’s top officials for their past and present misconduct, America can boost the morale of protesters, challenge the Islamic Republic’s radical Islamist ideology, and send a message to U.S. allies that the Iranian people deserve their robust and concerted support.

In a new report published Monday by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, I offer a roadmap for such a policy, identifying 12 senior Iranian leaders who have played a key role in upholding Iran’s architecture of repression. These 12 abusers represent many of the key institutions Tehran has developed to enforce its revolutionary ideology. Likewise, their biographies reflect the continuity of Iranian policy since 1979: The majority of the 12 perpetrated severe human rights abuses long before they assumed their current positions. They rose within the Iranian bureaucracy because of their abuses, not in spite of them.

Read the full op-ed in The Hill.