DUBAI, July 16 (Reuters) – Iran said on Saturday it had imposed sanctions on 61 additional U.S. nationals, including former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, for backing an Iranian splinter group, amid talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal are deadlocked.
Others blacklisted by Iran’s Foreign Ministry for expressing support for the exiled splinter group Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) include former President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former White House national security adviser John Bolton, Iranian media reported.
The sanctions, pronounced in the past against dozens of Americans for various reasons, allow the Iranian authorities to seize the assets held in Iran by the personalities concerned. The apparent absence of such assets means the measures are likely tokenistic.
Iran imposed sanctions on 51 Americans in January, and blacklisted 24 others in April.
Indirect talks between Iran and the United States on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal began in November in Vienna and continued in Qatar in June. They are currently at an impasse.
In 2018, US President Donald Trump denounced the deal as too favorable to Iran and imposed sanctions, prompting Thran to break the pact. (Duba desk report; French version Elizabeth Pineau)