The Biden administration on Thursday sanctioned Iran”s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence organization for wrongfully detaining Americans, The Associated Press.
Russia”s Federal Security Service was also sanctioned in the first rollout of new sanctions authorities established last year by President Joe Biden for use against those holding Americans unjustly captive.
The sanctions are largely symbolic as both organizations already are under sweeping existing sanctions for an array of malevolent behavior from election interference and Russia”s invasion of Ukraine to support for terrorist activity, noted AP.
Senior administration officials declined to specify which detentions specifically underpinned the sanctions, saying they were a response to a pattern of actions by the two countries in unjustly holding Americans both currently and in the past.
A US Treasury news release stated that Iranian authorities frequently hold and interrogate detainees in Evin Prison in Tehran and have a “direct role in the repression of protests and arrest of dissidents, including dual nationals.”
In addition to targeting the two organizations, the administration is also adding additional sanctions on four IRGC leaders it alleges are involved in hostage taking efforts, according to AP.
Brian E. Nelson, Treasury”s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, was quoted as having said the US is “committed to bringing home wrongfully detained US nationals and acting against foreign threats to the safety of US nationals abroad.”
The sanctions come three days after the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on four senior Iranian law enforcement and military officials involved in crushing protests that erupted last year after an Iranian woman died in the custody of the morality police.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said recently that the United States was looking at ways to strengthen its sanctions against Iran, though she acknowledged the sanctions had not resulted in the behavioral or policy changes Washington desires from Tehran.
