President Obama’s Treasury Department sanctioned two top Iranian military leaders yesterday for “serious human rights abuses” perpetrated during and since the crackdown on the Green Revolution protestors in 2009, and the State Department — almost 900 days after the crackdown — touts this as an example of the United States “steadfast support” for the Iranian people.
“These designations are a sign of the United States’ steadfast support for the people of Iran,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in a statement today, “as they continue to seek accountability from the Iranian government and freedom from abuse by senior Iranian officials.”
The US sanctioned the chairman of the Iranian Joint Chiefs of Staff and a Revolutionary Guards commander yesterday “for the violent crackdown in the summer of 2009, which came as Iranians sought to peacefully express their civil and political rights as part of the Green Movement.”
Obama offered only muted support for the protesters at the time, even after they sustained their outrage for months. He said that “We do not interfere in Iran’s internal affairs,” while also claiming that “the world continues to bear witness to [Iranian peoples’] powerful calls for justice.”
The Green Revolution began on June 12, 2009. The sanctions in response to the crackdown came out on December 13, 2011 — 894 days after the event. That’s not as long as the Democratic-controlled Senate has failed to pass a budget, but it’s too late for Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman who was killed by an Iranian sniper.
