WASHINGTON - A week after the U.S. sanctioned Iranian Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, raising the prospect of him losing access
to U.S. social media platforms, U.S. officials and tech companies are
mum on the issue.
The Trump administration sanctioned Zarif on July 31 for having
“acted or purported to act” on behalf of Iranian Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whom it sanctioned a month earlier as part of
its “maximum pressure campaign” against Tehran.
A Treasury Department statement announcing the move said Zarif was being sanctioned under President Donald Trump’s June 24 executive order blocking
“all property and interests” of Khamenei under U.S. jurisdiction, as
well as those of anyone who has “acted or purposed to act” for him.
Section 4 of the order imposes a “prohibition” on providing “funds,
goods or services … to or for the benefit of any person” whose property
and interests are blocked pursuant to the order.
The Treasury statement said the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also had added Zarif to its list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons, known as an SDN list.
The Treasury Department did not respond to a VOA Persian request for
comment on whether the prohibition on providing “services” to Zarif
includes a ban on giving him access to U.S. social media platforms,
including his Twitter and Instagram accounts.
