The US Department of State has imposed sanctions on an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) general, according to US Special Representative Brian Hook. The sanctions were imposed over a "crackdown" on protests, Hook said.
"The United States is listing IRGC Brigadier General Hassan Shavapour under Section 7031c, visa sanctions", Hook told reporters. "General Shavapour committed gross violations of human rights against protesters at the press briefing. He oversaw the massacre of 148 helpless Iranians in the Mashar region last November".
Hook also stated that the more Iran threatens the world, the more isolated it will become, responding to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's remarks.
The statement comes after Khamenei announced that the day Tehran struck US bases in Iraq in response to the killing of the country's top military commander Qasem Soleimani was "a day of God", adding that the killing of the general was a "disgrace" to the American administration. He also said that the attack showed the "terrorist nature" of Washington.
Earlier in January, Khamenei reportedly assembled an emergency meeting of Iran's Supreme Council for National Security immediately after he was informed about the catastrophic mistake of the country's air defence forces, which mistakenly shot down a passenger plane.
The Ukraine International Airlines-operated passenger plane crashed on 8 January near Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, killing all 176 people on board. Later, the Iranian military admitted to unintentionally shooting down the aircraft while being on alert after attacking Iraqi military bases that host US servicemen.