The United States has sanctioned four Iranians over an alleged plot to kidnap a so-called American-Iranian journalist based in New York.

In a statement released on Friday, the US Treasury Department said that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) was designating “four Iranian intelligence operatives,” claiming that they “targeted a US citizen in the United States and Iranian dissidents in other countries as part of a wide-ranging campaign to silence critics of the Iranian government.”

Those blacklisted include Alireza Shahvaroghi Farahani, Mahmoud Khazein, Kiya Sadeghi and Omid Noori, it said.

The sanctions block all property of the four Iranians in the United States or in US control, and prohibit any transactions between them and American citizens, according to the statement. Other non-Americans who conduct certain transactions with the four could also be subjected to US sanctions.

Speaking on Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said, “Unfortunately, the current US officials are pursuing the failed path of the previous administration.”

“The supporters and merchants of sanctions in the United States have found their sanctions toolbox empty due to Iran's maximum resistance, and this time, by resorting to Hollywood scenarios, they are trying to keep alive their life derived from the sanctions space,” he said.

Source: Press TV