On August 22, the U.S. State Department issued new guidance warning Americans to “carefully consider nonessential travel” to Iran. The warning reiterated the risk of arrest and detention of U.S. citizens, particularly dual national Iranian-Americans. Iran does not recognize dual citizenship. The following is the full text of the State Department warning.
Iran’s government reportedly continued to imprison, harass, intimidate and discriminate against people based on religious beliefs in 2015, according to an annual report by the U.S. State Department. The following are excerpts.
Executive Summary
Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on President Obama to unfreeze some $2 billion in Iranian foreign currency reserves that were seized from bank accounts in New York earlier in 2016. On April 20, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a judgement that held Iran financially responsible for terrorist attacks dating back to the 1983 Marine Corps barracks bombing in Beirut.
“Cyber is emerging as Tehran’s weapon of choice for dealing with domestic opponents and foreign adversaries,” according to Michael Eisenstadt of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. In a new paper, he outlined Iran’s growing interest in cyber, its abilities, and strategic logic. The following are excerpts.
Sanctions relief remains a contentious issue more than six months after the implementation of the nuclear deal. Both the United States and Iran, however, can take additional steps to ensure that Iran gets the intended benefits of sanctions relief, according to a new report by Richard Nephew, program director for Economic Statecraft, Sanctions, and Energy Markets at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. From 2013 to 2015, he served principal deputy coordinator for sanctions policy at the State Department and was the lead sanctions expert for the U.S.
Several Iranians who also hold foreign citizenship or residency are now imprisoned in Iran. Some have been accused of undermining national security or spreading propaganda against the state. Foreign nationals with no Iranian background have also been detained.
Iran, the United States and Russia criticized a new U.N. report on implementation of the nuclear deal codified in Security Council Resolution 2231. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in his first bi-annual report on the deal, commended Iran and the world’s major powers for implementing their commitments. He, however, highlighted Iran’s complaint that it has yet to fully benefit from the lifting of sanctions due to U.S. policies.
Iranian leaders expressed strong support for Turkey’s elected government and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following a failed coup by military officers. “These people should understand that the way of resolving the problems is democracy and respecting the nation’s vote,” said President Hassan Rouhani on July 17.
On the one year anniversary of the nuclear deal, U.S. officials praised the agreement but acknowledged that the United States and Iran still strongly disagree on regional issues, ballistic missiles, and human rights. “We still have serious differences with Iran, but the United States, our partners, and the world are more secure because of the JCPOA,” President Barack Obama said in a statement. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which went into its implementation phase in January, rolled back key elements of Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
