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A report from the Treasury Department said that the U.S. imposed new Iran-related sanctions that affect ten individuals and nine companies.
During a hearing in Congress, the U.S. special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, said that Washington and its allies will intensify the enforcement of sanctions against Iran if no nuclear deal is reached with Tehran.
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Addressing the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the special envoy said, "We expect to go back to the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action]. If we don't, you'll see continued sanctions enforcement, tougher sanctions enforcement, you'll see intensified action with allies and partners, but all of that will continue regardless of whether we go back to the JCPOA. So, being at the table doesn't tie our hands any more than it ties Iran's hands. If they feel free to pursue us, we will feel free to respond and take action against that."
In prepared testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Malley said additionally,
"We harbor no illusions. With or without a nuclear deal, the Iranian government will remain a threat. With or without a nuclear deal, it will continue to sponsor terrorism, threaten Israel, sow instability throughout the region, fund, train and equip a range of violent non-state actors, and oppress its people."
According to the special envoy, the U.S. is exploring the possibility of an alternative partner acting as a steward of Iran's surplus enriched nuclear material.
It's also frankly sickening to see "maximum pressure" proponents talk about the "human rights" of the Iranian people.
— Sina Toossi (@SinaToossi) May 25, 2022
Sanctions have denied countless Iranians the medicine & food they need to *survive*. Sanctions have greatly diminished prospects for peaceful democratic change.
Iran, the P5+1 countries, and the European Union signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2015, providing for the gradual removal of sanctions in exchange for curtailing Tehran's nuclear program.
The U.S. severed the agreement and began imposing unilateral sanctions against Iran in May 2018 on claims that it continued to develop nuclear weapons. A year later, Iran in turn proceeded to gradually scale back its commitments under the JCPOA. Afterward, the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the agreement and resumed imposing sanctions on Iran.
The Vienna negotiations on the reinstatement of the nuclear deal that began in April 2021 between the parties involved along with the United States were halted in March after EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced a pause in the Vienna talks on the grounds of "external factors."
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