The U.S. State Department on Friday designated Iran as a state sponsor of wrongful detention, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said the Islamic Republic was “not getting to the right answer” in negotiations on its nuclear program.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement on Friday that Iran has “continued to cruelly detain innocent Americans, as well as citizens of other nations, to use as political leverage against other states,” calling it an “abhorrent practice” that “must end.”
The designation comes after Trump published an executive order on Sept. 5 to protect U.S. nationals from wrongful detention abroad. Then, Congress passed the Countering Wrongful Detention Act, giving the administration authorization to designate Tehran.
“If Iran does not stop, we will be forced to consider additional measures, including a potential geographic travel restriction on the use of U.S. passports to, through, or from Iran,” Rubio said, speaking a day before the U.S.-Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic.
Iran is holding at least four Americans, though some organizations place the figure as high as eight. The State Department does not disclose such figures due to security considerations.
As part of Iran’s so-called “hostage diplomacy,” it often holds dual nationals, including Iranian-Americans, as political leverage.
Rubio said “no American should travel to Iran for any reason” and urged “Americans who are currently in Iran to leave immediately.”
Kamran Hekmati, a 70-year-old U.S. and Iranian citizen and Persian Jew from Great Neck, N.Y., was arrested last July when he went to Iran to visit family members.
Tehran charged him with traveling to Israel—considered a crime for Iranians—some 13 years prior to his visit to Iran, in order to attend his son’s bar mitzvah.
Hekmati was sentenced to four years detention and is being held in the country’s notorious Evin Prison, known for serious human rights abuses.
The Trump administration has continued with punitive measures against Iran, including additional sanctions, with nuclear negotiations ongoing.
“If you hold Americans hostages, there will be hell to pay,” wrote Adam Boehler, the administration’s special envoy for hostage response. “President Trump has brought 175 people home since inauguration and he won’t stop until every single American is free.”
