As months of talks to resuscitate a 2015 nuclear deal have stalled, Iran announced penalties on 15 more US officials, including former Army Chief of Staff George Casey and former President Donald Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani. Almost all of the people identified worked for Trump's administration, which slapped sanctions on Iranian officials, politicians, and businesses, as well as withdrawing the US from the Iran nuclear deal with international powers.
The Iranian foreign ministry accused US officials of aiding "terrorist groups and terrorist acts" against Iran, as well as Israel's "repressive acts" in the area and against Palestinians, in a statement reported by local media. Eleven months of indirect talks in Vienna between Iran and the US on salvaging the deal have come to a halt, with both sides claiming that political decisions must be made by Tehran and Washington to resolve the remaining difficulties.
The new Iranian sanctions have targeted Gen. Austin Scott Miller, the former commander of US forces in Afghanistan, as well as former US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and many former diplomats. Iran levied sanctions on 51 Americans, many of them from the US military, in January over the killing of General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Iraq in 2020.
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