U.S. slams travel ban on top Iranian government officials, family members

The U.S., on Friday, slammed top Iranian government officials and their family members with a travel ban over the brutal repression and clampdown on protesters by state agents.
The U.S. Department of State announced the move in a post on X on Friday, citing the ongoing crackdown on Iranian protesters.
“As the people of Iran continue to fight for their basic rights, @SecRubio took action this week to revoke the privilege of Iranian senior officials and their family members to be in the United States,” the U.S. Department of State’s post reads.
It added, “Those who profit from the Iranian regime’s brutal oppression are not welcome to benefit from our immigration system.”
Iran’s staggering inflation hit 42 per cent, while its currency, the rial, plummeted to an all-time low of 1.4 million rials per dollar, sparking protests on December 28.
For weeks, merchants, traders, and university students took to the streets, disrupting commercial and public activities across the country amid an internet blackout and a brutal police clampdown.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency on Friday reported that “Day 33 of Iran’s protests: 6,479 confirmed deaths, including 6,092 protesters and 118 children.”
It added, “17,091 cases remain under investigation. 11,020 injured, 11,027 summonses, and 660 protest incidents nationwide, as repression continues and the EU designates the IRGC a terrorist organization.”
Meanwhile, the Iranian government has repeatedly dismissed reports of massive killings of protesters as an “exaggeration,” admitting that “only hundreds” were killed during the protests sparked by an economic crisis that has lasted for two weeks.
Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s minister of foreign affairs, in an interview with Fox News a few days ago, blamed foreign “terrorists elements” for infiltrating the protests and killing people to get American President Donald Trump to “intervene.”
He said, “Those claims are baseless. You know, there is no proof of that. The number of deaths are only hundreds. The exact figure will be annouced very soon. Hundreds of people. I certainly deny the numbers and figures they have said. It is an exaggeration. It is a misinformation campaign.”
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