U.S. Policy
On December 19, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned Iran for wide-ranging human rights abuses, including the violent crackdown on protestors in November 2019. He also announced new U.S. sanctions and visa restrictions. His address was part of a State Department symposium on the state of human…
On December 13, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned two recent attacks by Iran’s proxies in Iraq. Pompeo warned Tehran that the United States would respond decisively to attacks against U.S. interests or allies in the region. “Iran must respect the sovereignty of its neighbors and…
The U.S. “maximum pressure” campaign has deprived Iran of “historical levels of revenue,” according to U.S. Special Representative for Iran, Brian Hook. At a Council on Foreign Relations event, he predicted that Iran’s leaders would be forced to pursue negotiations or accept economic defeat. “Our…
On December 11, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced sanctions on three Iranian transportation companies that “helped Iran import items for its weapons of mass destruction programs.” The United States also blacklisted a shipping network that smuggles weapons from Iran to Yemen to support the…
On December 7, the United States and Iran conducted a rare prisoner swap. An American graduate student, Xiyue Wang, was released in Switzerland in exchange for Massoud Soleimani, an Iranian national held in an Atlanta prison for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions.
President Donald Trump,…
On December 6, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned three Iran-backed Iraqi militia leaders for their alleged role in the killing of innocent protestors. Protests erupted on October 1 over government corruption, unemployment and a lack of basic services. The demonstrations also targeted growing Iranian…
On November 25, a U.S. warship seized a significant cache of Iranian weapons bound for Yemen’s Houthi rebels. A U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard boarding team interdicted the weapons during a flag verification of a small wooden boat in the northern Arabia Sea. “An initial investigation indicates that…
In a wide-ranging briefing, U.S. Special Representative for Iran, Brian Hook, alleged that Iranian security forces may have killed more than 1,000 people, including at least a dozen children, in response to demonstrations that were sparked by a gas price hike on November 15. The protests swept 100…
On November 22, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Iran’s communications minister, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, for his role in internet censorship. In a surprise overnight announcement on November 15, Iran hiked gas prices—by up to 300 percent—and introduced a new rationing system. The government’s…
The Trump administration offered support to Iranians protesting a hike in gas prices announced on November 15. “We condemn the lethal force and severe communications restrictions used against demonstrators. Tehran has fanatically pursued nuclear weapons and missile programs, and supported terrorism…