"There Will Be Escalating Costs For The Iranian Regime" — State Department

The Biden Administration on Monday said that the Iranian regime will be facing consequences for its alignment with Moscow in Ukraine, as well as its crimes of silencing critics at home, "in some cases even killing them," as the State Department spokesperson put it, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"There will be escalating costs for the Iranian regime," spokesperson Ned Price said in response to TURAN's questions during a daily press briefing.

Price's comments came as Iran, over the weekend, hanged two young men — Mohammad Mehdi Karami, the karate champion, and Sayed Mohammad Hosseini, the factory worker — who participated in anti-government demonstrations late last year.

"Rather than listen to the young people, to the women, to the girls of Iran, the regime is trying to silence them, and in some cases the regime is even killing them," Price said.

Washington is also in the process of determining whether Iran might be contributing to war crimes in Ukraine, according to Price.

Earlier the White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that Iran could be contributing to war crimes in Ukraine by providing drones to Russia.

The U.S. is already contributing money, expertise and other logistical support to Ukrainian and international investigators probing allegations of war crimes and Price said those probes could well extend beyond Russia’s actions.

“If in the course of that work we are in a position to determine that the Iranian government as a whole or that senior Iranian officials are complicit or responsible for war crimes, we will work to hold them to account as well,” he added.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.