President Barack Obama has ordered sanctions against eight senior Iranian officials for alleged human rights abuses during a crackdown that followed the disputed election of 2009, when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected. The United States on Wednesday named eight senior Iranian officials -- including the commander of the Revolutionary Guards and several cabinet ministers -- as participants in human rights abuses including killings after disputed presidential elections in June 2009.

"On these officials' watch, or under their command, Iranian citizens have been arbitrarily arrested, beaten, tortured, raped, blackmailed and killed," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a news conference. "Yet the Iranian government has ignored repeated calls from the international community to end these abuses."

The United States has imposed sanctions against Iran over a number of issues, including its nuclear program, but this was the first time that actions were based against it on alleged human rights abuses. "We would like to be able to tell you that it might be the last, but we fear not," Clinton said at a joint event with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who predicted it would have significant repercussions for those named as offenders.

An executive order signed by President Barack Obama specifies that any assets the eight Iranians have in the United States are subject to seizure and bans any transactions with them by American citizens.