Iran has sanctioned 51 other Americans accused by Tehran of involvement in the attack with a drone that, on January 3, 2020, killed General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad. The Foreign Ministry reported on Saturday. Among the new recipients of the sanctions, whose names have been disclosed by the ministry, are the Chief of the Joint Staff, Mark Milley, the National Security Advisor, Robert Charles O’brien Jr, the Deputy Undersecretary for Internal Security of the States United States Matthew F. Pottinger and United States Central Command (Centcom) Chief Kenneth McKenzie.
Also on the list is the founder of the private military company Blackwater, Erik Dean Prince, and the former United States representative to the United Nations, Nimarta Nikki Haley. According to Tehran, the 51 are involved in decision making, planning, organization, financing, support for the “terrorist act against Soleimani” and “have promoted terrorism which is a threat to international peace and security”.
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In October 2020 and January 2021, Iran had already sanctioned several American officials, including then-President Donald Trump, its Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Defense Secretary Mark Esper. The new sanctions, like the previous ones, provide for the confiscation of the assets in Iran of the recipients of the measure.
Soleimani, the former general in charge of the Iranian Revolutionary Guardians Quds Force, was killed in a bombing raid by a US drone on January 3, 2020 near Baghdad International Airport. Sanctions come during the Vienna negotiations to save the 2015 nuclear deal.
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