U.S. issues new sanctions on Iran on nuclear program

The United States on Wednesday sanctioned five entities and one individual that it says support entities overseeing Iran’s nuclear program, the State Department said in a press release.

The entities sanctioned include the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and its subordinate Iran Centrifuge Technology Company as part of President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, the release said.

“The United States will continue to hold accountable those who seek to support Iran’s nuclear program, to include its proliferation-sensitive uranium enrichment activities,” Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokesperson, said in the statement.

These sanctions come after Trump also announced in the Oval Office Monday that the U.S. and Iran will hold nuclear talks this upcoming weekend. Bruce reiterated in a press briefing Tuesday, the day before the sanctions were announced, that the focus of the talks Saturday is “not a negotiation, it’s a meeting,” and that “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”

Officials from Iran, Russia and China met in Moscow Apr. 7 and 8 to hold separate trilateral consultations on the Iranian nuclear issue, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry Monday.