As the coronavirus pandemic continued to ravage Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei suggested that the United States bore responsibility for his nation’s plight.

Since the 1980s, the MCIG has played a leading role in suppressing political and cultural speech that contradicts Tehran’s revolutionary creed. But while the Obama administration sanctioned the ministry in 2012 for engaging in censorship, its current leadership has escaped Washington’s attention. By sanctioning the ministry’s current head, Abbas Salehi, Washington can send the mullahs a message that their ideologically driven repression will carry a price.