On July 16, 2022, Iran said it had imposed sanctions on 61 more Americans, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for supporting an Iranian dissident group as months of talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal are deadlocked. Others blacklisted by Iran’s foreign ministry for expressing support for the exiled dissident group Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) included former President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former White House national security adviser John Bolton, Iranian state media said.
Sanctions imposed on dozens of Americans in the past for various reasons have allowed Iranian authorities to seize any assets they have in Iran, but the apparent absence of such assets means the moves are likely to be symbolic. Giuliani, Pompeo and Bolton have been widely reported to have attended MEK events and expressed support for the group. In January, Iran imposed sanctions on 51 Americans and in April blacklisted another 24 Americans in its latest sanctions moves.
Iran’s indirect negotiations with the United States to revive the 2015 nuclear pact began in Vienna in November and continued in Qatar in June. But the negotiations ended up in an impasse that lasted several months. In 2018, then-U.S. President Trump abandoned the deal, calling it too soft on Iran, and reimposed tough US sanctions, prompting Tehran to violate nuclear limits in the pact.
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