Iran on Saturday sanctioned 24 Americans, including former US generals and former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, amid ongoing discussions to revive a West-Iran nuclear deal.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a press release that the 24 people were involved in “terrorist attacks” and human rights abuses, accusing them of depriving Iran of medical supplies and supporting economic punishments against the Iranian people.
The ministry also said the individuals funded and supported “terrorist groups and terrorist attacks” against the Palestinian people in Israel.
Palestine has at times violently clashed with Israel over border disputes in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the Middle East.
Iran’s sanctions list comes just days after President Biden’s administration announced sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program.
According to the Tehran Times, those named by Iran on Saturday include former Army Chief of Staff George Casey, former Joint Special Operations Command Gen. Austin Scott Miller, former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, former Central Command Cmdr. Joseph Votel and several other former military and government officials.
Giuliani’s addition to the list means he joins former President Trump and a host of other officials under the former president’s country-sanctioned administration.
They include former CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
The US and Iran have been holding indirect talks in Vienna for months to hammer out a new joint comprehensive plan of action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump scrapped in 2018.
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While officials have increasingly signaled that a new deal is on the horizon, a final agreement has yet to be put on the table. A new deal will likely lift US-imposed economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for an agreement that Iranian officials will not enrich uranium to make nuclear weapons.
On Thursday the Iranian Foreign Ministry tweeted that the ministry minister and other Iranian officials were determined to agree on a new deal but said that “the US side needs to act realistically rather than making excessive demands and obstructing negotiations.”
In the US, some lawmakers, including House Democrats, are increasingly concerned about the state of talks and the Biden administration’s lack of transparency over a possible new nuclear deal.