Contacted by AFP, Mehdi Shafii, head of the media group that publishes Iran, accused the US Treasury of wanting to "block" and "confiscate" the company's domain names.
US President Donald Trump's administration has "so far shown that it is not at all rational or logical and therefore behaviour such as stealing a newspaper's domain was not unexpected", he added. "This is an inhumane act that violates human rights, in particular freedom of expression," Shafii said. He called on "all international bodies, members of the media and all supporters of freedom of expression around the world to react and condemn this decision". The US Treasury, particularly its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), acts according to US economic sanctions that the Trump administration has tightened considerably against Iran since 2018.