Iran imposes sanctions on 24 Americans as nuclear talks stall

Iran confirmed on Saturday it had imposed sanctions on 24 more Americans, including former Army Chief of Staff George Casey and former President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, as months of talks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal have stalled.

Nearly all the people named were officials who served during Trump’s administration, which imposed sanctions on Iranian officials, politicians and companies and withdrew the United States from Iran’s nuclear agreement.

In a statement carried by local media, the Iranian Foreign Ministry accused the sanctioned Americans, who also included several business figures and politicians, of supporting “terrorist groups and terrorist acts” against Iran, and Israel’s “repressive acts” in the region and against Palestinians.

Eleven months of indirect talks between Iran and the United States in Vienna on recovering the 2015 deal have stalled as both sides say political decisions are required by Tehran and Washington to settle outstanding issue.

The sanctions will allow Iranian authorities seize any assets held by the individuals in Iran, but the apparent absence of such assets is likely to render the move mainly symbolic.

Gen. Austin Scott Miller, who is former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, former U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and several former ambassadors are among the officials targeted by the new Iranian sanctions.

In a similar move announced in January, Iran imposed sanctions on 51 Americans, many of them from the U.S. military, over the 2020 killing of General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Iraq. Last year, they imposed sanctions on Trump and several senior U.S. officials.