TEHRAN -- Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani has censured the new round of U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic, saying the bans are the “backbone” of the so-called American human rights regulations.

Kan’ani made the remark in a post on his Instagram account, after the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on seven Iranian officials over what it claimed to be the shutdown of internet access and the crackdown on protesters.

“Every day, a new list of sanctions against Iran is published under some pretext. This time, the Minister of Interior, the Minister of Communications and five other Iranian officials were sanctioned by the U.S. government,” the spokesman said.

“Of course, before this seven-member list of Iranian ministers and figures, each and every Iranian individual was subjected hundreds of times to the most unprecedented sanctions in history against a nation by the American regime.”

The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday levied sanctions on Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi and Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eisa Zarepour, among others, accusing Vahidi of ordering suppression of riots after the death of Mahsa Amini, and Zarepour of leading attempts to block the country’s internet access in a bid to slow the protests.

“The whole Iranian people, without any distinction and discrimination, have been struggling for many years with the brutal sanctions of the United States, which have targeted their livelihood, jobs, health and normal life,” Kanaani said.

“Even EB children were not exempted from the unilateral, illegal and cruel U.S. sanctions. Sanctions are the backbone of American human rights,” he noted, referring to children suffering from a rare skin condition known as epidermolysis bullosa (EB).