Washington, Apr 24 (IANS): The US Monday unveiled new sanctions against Iran and Syria for using "technologies to monitor and target citizens for violence".

"I've signed an executive order that authorizes new sanctions against the Syrian government and Iran and those that abet them for using technologies to monitor and track and target citizens for violence," US president Barack Obama said.

"These technologies should be in place to empower citizens, not to repress them," Obama said during a speech at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The sanctions targeted the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate, Syrian mobile phone company Syriatel, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Iranian intelligence and security ministry and the Iranian internet company Datak Telecom, among others.

The order also bans director of Syrian intelligence directorate Ali Mamluk's entry into the US, Xinhua quoted a White House statement as saying.