Mousavi condemned the sanctions against Iran’s interior minister and the police chief, saying, “The US regime’s addiction to imposing sanctions reflects the illegal and arbitrary behavior of the United States against the international law and order which targets the legal institutions and authorities of independent states.”

“The US regime’s fruitless and repetitive sanctions against the interior minister, the police chief, and other Iranian officials are a sign of the US regime’s weakness, despair, and confusion which is based on the constant illusions and under the influence of inexperienced advisers and in response to the failures of this regime against the will of the government and the people of Iran,” he added.

“The recent sanctions are also a major violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2331 and its obligations under the international law,” Mousavi said, adding, “The international community must hold the United States accountable for such gross violations.”

“By imposing and enforcing such sanctions, the United States has ignored customary and international decencies and directly sanctioned individuals and institutions that are tied with the order and security of the Iranian people and, on a larger scale, with the security of the region,” he noted.

The US Treasury Department announced on Wednesday a fresh round of sanctions against some Iranian authorities including the Interior Minister Rahmani Fazli and Police Chief Brigadier General Hossein Ashtari.

The new sanctions affect the Great Tehran Penitentiary in Iran’s capital, the Law Enforcement Forces Cooperative Foundation, and Qarchak Prison, also situated in Tehran. All three entities are targeted with secondary Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA)-related restrictions.

The sanctions are also imposed by seven other officials in the Iranian Police.

The anti-Iranian measure comes as the international community has called on the US to remove or ease sanctions against Iran amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The new restrictions also come less than a day after the sanctioning of a Chinese logistics company providing services to Iran’s Mahan Air, and weeks after the May 1 sanctioning on an Iran-related mining company in Oman, and an individual said to be linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.