US presses fresh sanctions against Iran amid nuclear talks
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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States on Monday announced new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program as talks between the two countries continue.
The sanctions targeted three Iranian citizens and an Iranian entity with ties to Iran's Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, known by its Persian acronym SPND, 'the direct successor organization to Iran's pre-2004 nuclear weapons program, also referred to as the Amad project,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
'Iran continues to substantially expand its nuclear program and carry out dual-use research and development activities applicable to nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons delivery systems,' Rubio said, adding that Iran is the world's only country without nuclear weapons that produces uranium enriched to 60 percent.
The sanctions came a day after a fourth round of nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran in Muscat, which Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described as 'significantly more serious.'
Indirect talks between Araghchi and US special envoy Steve Witkoff about Iran's nuclear program and sanctions relief began on April 12 in Oman.
'The United States' actions are intended to delay and degrade the ability of SPND to conduct nuclear weapons research and development,' Rubio stressed. 'Today's actions demonstrate the United States' commitment to ensuring that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon.'
The sanctions seek to freeze assets that the designated officials possess under US jurisdiction, and bars all American companies or individuals from engaging with them.
They are aimed at three SPND officials and a company named Fuya Pars Prospective Technologists.
'Fuya Pars Prospective Technologists, also known as Ideal Vacuum, is an SPND-affiliated company that has attempted to procure from foreign suppliers, as well as indigenously fabricate, equipment that could be applicable in nuclear weapons research and development,' the State Department said.
Under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran agreed to curb its nuclear enrichment program in exchange for much-needed relief from crippling sanctions.
But the deal began unraveling in 2018, when US President Donald Trump, under his first term, unilaterally withdrew from the accord and imposed biting sanctions on the Islamic republic, which in turn began rolling back on its nuclear commitments.
Tehran, however, has repeatedly asserted that atomic weapons go against the Islamic republic's doctrine and has maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
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