Iran announced on Wednesday (3) the imposition of sanctions against 11 US police officers for their role in the “brutal suppression” of protests against Israel at American universities.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic designates the following American individuals for their involvement in the violation of human rights in the suppression of peaceful protests by university students and professors in the US who were supporting the oppressed Palestinian nation against the crimes of the Zionist regime in Gaza,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Among those sanctioned are Georgia Department of Public Safety Commissioner William Billy Hitchens; Georgia Operations Commander Eddie Grier; University of Florida Police Department Chief Linda J. Stump-Kurnick; and District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela A. Smith.
They are joined by Georgetown Metropolitan Police Deputy Chief Jeffery Carroll and Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, among others.
The sanctions prohibit affected individuals from entering Iran, order the confiscation of their property and assets on Iranian soil, and block their bank accounts in the country.
The Tehran regime has expressed its support for US students who have called on universities to cut ties with Israel over the war with the Iran-funded terrorist group Hamas.
“Young American students! You have now placed yourselves on the right side of history,” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in an official address in May.
“You are now part of the Axis of Resistance and, under brutal pressure from your government, which openly defends the ruthless Zionist usurper regime, you have begun an honorable struggle,” Iran’s top political official said.
The so-called Axis of Resistance is an anti-Israel alliance led by Iran and made up of Yemen’s Houthis, the Palestinian group Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and other regional militias.
In recent months, thousands of college students across the US have taken to campuses with demonstrations and camps to protest the war in Gaza, the largest such mobilizations in decades.
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