Trump administration continuing war of economic terrorism on Iran: Former congressional staffer

US President Donald Trump is joined by (L-R) US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, US Vice President Mike Pence, Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner and US special representative for Iran, Brian Hook, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on September 11, 2020. (AFP photo)

 The administration of US President Donald Trump is continuing a war of economic terrorism on Iran, American political analyst Rodney Martin has said.  

The spokesman for Iran’s Guardian Council has condemned US sanctions against a number of Iranian judicial officials, hitting back at the US administration over police brutality and racial injustice against African-Americans in the country.

The condemnation on Friday came a day after the Trump administration of blacklisted several Iranian officials and entities in the country’s Judiciary over rights abuse accusations.

Washington also slapped sanctions on a judge that it claimed was involved in the high-profile case of Navid Afkari, a convict that was recently executed over murder.

Iran’s Guardian Council blasts US sanctions against judicial officials

The spokesman for Iran’s Guardian Council has blasted new US sanctions against a number of Iranian judicial officials.

“The Guardian Counsel's spokesman is correct in his assessment and to criticize additional US sanctions on Iranian judicial officials. Can you imagine the outcry if countries such as Russia and China, who had had legitimate claims should do so sanctioned the Chief Justice in the United States Supreme Court and the remaining Supreme Court members?” said Martin, a former congressional staffer based in Arizona.

“But what Donald Trump is doing by continuing this, a war of economic terrorism, on Iran is to attempt to placate and gin up his evangelical and Jewish base in the election, both of which he seemed some signs of slippage and that concerned him so what better way to shore up their support than to use the Iranian people and the Iranian government officials as a political punching bag, and to escalate the economic terrorism that the United States has engaged in Iran or imposed on Iran since 1979,” Martin told Press TV on Monday.

“It's blatant hypocrisy, very selective sanctions. The United States did not sanction Saudi Arabia for its brutal murder of Mr. Khashoggi. It has not sanctioned Israel for blatant violations of UN resolutions, nor has it ever punished Israel for even spying on the United States,” he added.

“So the United States is very selective about its sanctions and recriminations for so-called wrongdoings. And of course, the United States has tremendous amounts of culpability in the areas of wrongdoing. As you noted the police forces in the United States are in need of serious reforms in the areas of human rights and due process,” he said.

“So I think this would be a good time for Iran as the spokesman indicated to start sanctioning judicial and other government officials and lobby, China, and the Russian Federation, and even India to follow suit,” he noted.