The United States placed sanctions Tuesday on two top Iranian military figures for their roles in the brutal crackdown on dissenters in the wake of the June 2009 election. The US Treasury named Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, chairman of Iran's Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Revolutionary Guard Deputy Commander Abdollah Araqi under the sanctions, which forbid Americans from any business relations with them and freeze their assets in the US.
Firouzabadi, Iran's top military figure, oversees the army, the Revolutionary Guards, and the Basij paramilitary forces. The Revolutionary Guard and the Basij have already been hit with Treasury sanctions for their violent crackdown on protesters after the 2009 vote and for the mistreatment of political prisoners at a Tehran prison controlled by the Revolutionary Guard. In 2009 Araqi commanded an elite Tehran division of the Guard that was responsible for security after the election and played "a key role" in the crackdown on the protesters, the Treasury said.
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