Canada announces sanctions on 12 Iranian individuals

In a statement on Monday, Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada announced sanctions on 12 senior officials from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) for allegedly participating in the crackdown on the foreign-backed rioters in the west of Iran.

The move comes a few days after the UK and the EU imposed new rounds of sanctions on Iran last weekend.

The Canadian government in coordination with other western states has announced several rounds of sanctions on the Iranian nation over the past few months after failure in the riots in the country.

Since sporadic foreign-backed riots took place in Iran last summer, Western countries led by the United States started to tighten sanctions against Iran's judicial and other authorities in a bid to continue the riots they had provoked and supported after the sudden death of a young Iranian lady, Mahsa Amini, while in Iran's police custody.

The Islamic Republic of Iran sees the western countries' accusations as part of intensified pressures aimed at pressuring it to give in to the West's excessive demands in the nuclear talks.