Blinken says U.S. ‘appalled’ by execution of British-Iranian national

BY A STAFF REPORTER: The United States is appalled by Iran’s execution of Alireza Akbari, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, vowing that Tehran’s abuses in its crackdown of widespread demonstrations will not go unpunished. “We were appalled by the execution of Mr. Akbari just as we’ve been appalled by everything we’ve been seeing on the streets of Iran over the last months since these protests began: mass arrests, sham trials, the executions, the use of sexual violence as a tool for protests’ suppression,” Blinken said at a news conference. “These abuses will not go without consequence. Together with many other countries, we’ve been moving forward with a variety of unilateral actions, multilateral measures, using U.N. mechanisms, to try to hold Iran to account,” he added.