The president additionally designated the Venezuelan "regime" as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) and charged government officials with exploiting oil revenues for personal enrichment and funding drug terrorism. This action further amplifies the pressure Trump has applied against Venezuela as Washington attempts to compel Maduro's departure and warns of potential military intervention if he refuses.

Should Trump intend to classify the Maduro government as a foreign terrorist organization – a designation legally implemented by the State Department rather than the White House – Venezuela would become the first country ever to receive such status. Venezuela's government is already "blocked," a measure Trump enacted during his first term that prohibits any US person or entity from conducting business with it, according to the report.

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The US Treasury Department expanded its sanctions program targeting Israeli settlers on Monday, adding three individuals and multiple organizations to its Specially Designated Nationals list overseen by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. This latest round of sanctions follows a presidential executive order signed by President Joe Biden earlier this year targeting certain Israeli settlers.

The new designations include Shabtay Kushlevsky, affiliated with the Hashomer Yosh organization; Itamar Yehuda Levi, a resident of the Susya settlement connected to the Eyal Hari Yehuda company; and Zohar Saba from the Mevo'ot Yericho settlement.

The Treasury Department's action also encompasses Amana, an organization founded in 1979 by the Settlement Movement of Gush Emunim Central Cooperative Association Ltd, along with its subsidiary companies: Binyanei Bar Amana and Eyal Hari Yehuda.

Under these sanctions, all US-based assets belonging to the designated individuals and organizations will be frozen. American citizens and companies will be prohibited from engaging in any business transactions with them.

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A federal lawsuit filed in Texas is challenging the Biden administration's sanctions against Israeli citizens, alleging the measures violate constitutional rights. Four Israeli-Americans claim the sanctions are discriminatory, with their attorney arguing that the president cannot punish those with whom he politically disagrees.

Last week, four Israelis with American citizenship filed a lawsuit against the US government in the Northern District of Texas federal court, challenging sanctions imposed on them. The plaintiffs argue that the sanctions violate the US Constitution and have given the government 90 days to respond.

Michael Isley, a Texans for Israel worker; Meir Deutsch, the CEO of pro-settler NGO Regavim; Ari Abramowitz, a victim of a stabbing attack by Palestinians; and Yosef Ben Chaim, the husband to the founder of Tzav 9, a movement to stop humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, brought the lawsuit. It details the case of Yosef Ben Chaim: "The plaintiff has suffered significant financial harm from the sanctions imposed on his wife, as he received his monthly salary from her business. Their bank accounts, including her business account in Israel, were frozen, preventing the couple from carrying out essential daily activities," the lawsuit states.

The complaint provides context for Tzav 9 activities, emphasizing the organization's opposition to violence and outlining the impact of the sanctions. "The order is discriminatory, and its enforcement violates the constitutional rights of American citizens," writes Jerome Marcus, one of the attorneys on the legal team. In an interview with Israel Hayom, Marcus added that the administration has supported other protests that employed tactics similar to those employed in Tzav 9.

לא מכניסים סחורה לחמאסנאצים !

נמשכת מניעת כניסת משאיות לרצועת עזה.
משאית ירדנית נעצרה והסחורה הושמדה.

גם המשאיות שבמעבר גורביץ פורקו מסחורה
11 משאיות של סחורה !!!

כל הכבוד
pic.twitter.com/ghkzmtsDg8

— דבורה ⁦ (@devorah555) May 13, 2024

What exactly is the problem with the sanctions?

Marcus explained, "The order is worded to apply to 'anyone who, in the US President's opinion, interferes with the peace process between Israel and its Arab neighbors.' However, in practice, sanctions were only imposed on Jews, while Palestinian Authority officials who committed violence against Jews faced no such measures." He argued that the conclusion about Israeli settler violence is based on biased statistics.

Marcus further contended, "The administration targeted individuals for engaging in legitimate protest activities. This is the kind of protest that the Biden administration has praised when it involved organizations they support. The administration's order gives the president the authority to punish people who act contrary to his opinion. This is unusual and, in our view, illegal."

Regarding the impact on US citizens, Marcus emphasized, "The fact that these sanctions target US citizens makes the executive order far more problematic legally. US citizens have constitutional rights that non-citizens do not. This is particularly relevant to the First Amendment, which protects every American citizen's right to free speech and to hear others speak freely."

Why is the proceeding taking place in Texas?

Marcus explained, "One of the plaintiffs, Texans for Israel – a group of Christian supporters of Israel who bring Israelis from Judea and Samaria to the US to speak and meet with American government officials – is based in Texas."

Deutsch filed the petition against the sanctions and commented: "Friendship and democracy are proven through actions, not words. The recent actions of the US raise serious questions about its commitment to both democracy and true friendship. At Israel's most challenging hour since its establishment, the American administration has withheld critical ammunition. For the first time in history, our ally has imposed sanctions on us – not to influence government policy but to sway public opinion in Israel. This is not how a democracy behaves, nor how a friend acts."

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Iran's new foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, visited Damascus on Sunday and gave a speech decrying American sanctions against Syria, as well as blasting Israel.

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"The Zionists are the main reason for the instability that is engulfing the region," Amirabdollahian said at a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart.

"Christians, Muslims, and even Jews are being held prisoner by the Zionist entity in Palestine's historical territory," he said, adding, "only regional cooperation between Muslim states can lead to a stable security situation in this regard."

Amirabdollahian stressed that Iran would work to strengthen economic ties with Syrian and help it overcome the ongoing economic crisis caused by years of war and US sanctions.

"We are working on an economic plan that will include cooperation on trade and energy, with the goal being to battle the United States' oppressive sanctions on the Arab Republic of Syria," the foreign minister said.

Amirabdollahian also hinted that Iran wanted to create a new regional order, based on forces loyal to its regime: "We see the recent developments in the region. We believe that any political or security arrangement in the region should involve its sovereign states, including Iraq and Syria."

Touching on the situation in Afghanistan, he said he hoped that an Afghan government would be established that would include "all political players" in the state.

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The Biden administration is signaling that Iran shouldn't expect major new concessions from the United States as a new round of indirect nuclear talks is set to resume.

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A senior administration official told reporters Thursday that the US has laid out the concessions it's prepared to make in order to rejoin the landmark 2015 nuclear deal that former US President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018. The official said success or failure now depends on Iran making the political decision to accept those concessions and to return to compliance with the accord.

The official spoke to reporters in a State Department-organized conference call on the eve of the negotiations' resumption in Vienna. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the US position going into the fourth round of closed-door talks at which the remaining participants in the nuclear deal are passing messages between the American and Iranian delegations.

The comments came after Secretary of State Antony Blinken complained of Iranian intransigence in the talks during a visit to Ukraine.

"What we don't know is whether Iran is actually prepared to make the decisions necessary to return to full compliance with the nuclear agreement," Blinken said in an interview with NBC News in Kyiv. "They unfortunately have been continuing to take steps that are restarting dangerous parts of their program that the nuclear agreement stopped. And the jury is out on whether they're prepared to do what's necessary."

Iran has thus far given no indication it will settle for anything less than a full lifting of all the Trump sanctions and has balked at suggestions it would have to reverse all of the steps it has taken that violate the deal. Iranian officials have in recent weeks said the US has offered significant, but not sufficient sanctions relief, but they have not outlined exactly what they would do in return.

The administration official said the United States is ready to return to the explicit terms of the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, as they were negotiated by the Obama administration, but only if Iran will do the same. The official said the United States will not accept doing more than required by the JCPOA to bring Iran back into compliance.

The deal gave Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. Much of that relief evaporated after Trump pulled out and re-imposed and expanded US sanctions. Iran responded by breaking though the deal's limits on uranium enrichment, the use of advanced centrifuges and other activities such as heavy water production.

After previous rounds of talks in Vienna, the administration had said there was flexibility in what it might offer to Iran, including going beyond the letter of the deal to ease non-nuclear sanctions from the Trump era that nonetheless affected the relief the Iranians were entitled to for agreeing to the accord.

That is still the case, although the official's comments on Thursday suggested that the limits of that flexibility had been reached. The official would not describe the concessions the US is prepared to make but said any that it finds to be "inconsistent" with the nuclear deal would be stricken.

The official declined to predict whether the fourth round would produce a breakthrough but said it remains possible to reach an agreement quickly and before Iran's June presidential elections that some believe are a complicating factor in the talks. The official said the outlines of what both sides need to do is clear. "We think it's doable," the official said. "This isn't rocket science;"

But, the official said success depends on Iran not demanding more than it is entitled to under the terms of the original deal and by verifiably reversing the steps it has taken that violate it.

The Biden administration has been coy about what specific sanctions it is willing to lift, although officials have acknowledged that some non-nuclear sanctions, such as those Trump imposed for terrorism, ballistic missile activity and human rights abuses, may have to be eased for Iran to get the relied it is entitled to. That's because the some entities that were removed from sanctions under the nuclear deal are now penalized under other authorities.

The official did say that the administration no longer believed that the Trump administration had improperly or illegitimately imposed some of the those non-nuclear sanctions with the sole purpose of trying to frustrate a potential return to the deal.

The official said the administration does not question the "evidentiary basis" of those sanctions. However, the official said the administration is looking to see if they are "consistent with a return" to the deal, which it has already determined to be in the U.S. national security interest if Iran comes back into compliance.

"If we think it is inconsistent with a return to the JCPOA to maintain a particular designation, then we are prepared to lift it," the official said.

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Iran will cancel its recent agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency if Europe takes action to condemn Iran in international institutions, spokesman for the Iranian government Ali Rabiei announced on Tuesday.

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"If any decision is made to condemn Iran, our leadership will respond appropriately, and consider a complete withdrawal from the understands we reached with the IAEA," Rabiei told the Tasnim news agency.

In February, after Iran announced that it had passed legislation that would constrain the work of IAEA inspectors in the country, the IAEA made a deal with Iran to allow partial oversight to continue.

On Monday, IAEA head Rafael Grossi said that the temporary agreement with Iran to allow United Nations inspectors continued access to the country's atomic facilities was less comprehensive than before, but laid the groundwork for the return to full verification measures if and when Tehran allowed it.

Under the agreement, Iran will no longer share surveillance footage of its nuclear facilities with the IAEA but it has promised to preserve the tapes for three months. It will then hand them over to the IAEA if it is granted sanctions relief. Otherwise, Iran has vowed to erase the tapes, narrowing the window for a diplomatic breakthrough.

Grossi said the deal meant inspectors could still keep track of the quantity of enriched uranium, for example, but have lost their view of other activities such as Iran's mining operations and its research and development.

That means they're not able to form as complete a picture of Iran's nuclear program, Grossi suggested.

"With a nuclear program which has the breadth and depth of the Iranian one – complex,  big, sophisticated – we need everything," he said.

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Rabiei repeated that Iran refused to negotiate with the US over its nuclear program, saying, "We do not accept the hypocritical rhetoric of the United States. We will not sit down to any negotiations or discussions under the sanctions the Trump administration put on us are removed."

Meanwhile, various Iranian government spokesmen have made a series of vehemently anti-Israel statements.

Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he called "prime minister of the Zionist regime," suffered from "an obsessive mental illness when it comes to everything concerning Iran. Despite the wretched situation we see in Israeli territory, they see the declarations about Iran as a way of evading their situation."

However, Khatibzadeh denied that Iran was involved in the attack on the Israeli-owned ship Helios Ray in the Gulf of Oman on Feb. 26, and said that the Israeli accusations of Iranian involvement were designed to hurt Iran's position.

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The Biden administration on Thursday rescinded former US President Donald Trump's restoration of UN sanctions on Iran, an announcement that could help Washington move toward rejoining the 2015 nuclear agreement aimed at reining in the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.

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Acting US Ambassador Richard Mills sent a letter to the UN Security Council on behalf of President Joe Biden saying the United States "hereby withdraws" three letters from the Trump administration culminating in its Sept. 19 announcement that the United States had re-imposed UN sanctions on Tehran.

Mills said in the letter obtained by The Associated Press that sanctions measures terminated in the 2015 council resolution endorsing the nuclear deal with six major powers, but restored by Trump in September, "remain terminated."

Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, in 2018, accusing Iran of serious violations.

Biden has said the United States wants to rejoin the pact and the State Department said Thursday the U. would accept an invitation from the European Union to attend a meeting of the participants in the original agreement − Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and Iran.

The Trump administration's decision to invoke a provision in the 2015 council resolution allowing the "snapback" of sanctions because Iran was in "significant non-performance" with its obligations under the accord was ignored by the rest of the Security Council and the world.

The overwhelming majority of members in the 15-nation council called Trump's action illegal, because the US was no longer a member of the JCPOA.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the United Nations would not support re-imposing sanctions on Iran as the United States was demanding until he got a green light from the Security Council. He said there was "uncertainty" on whether or not former secretary of state Mike Pompeo had triggered the "snapback" mechanism.

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged the United States to lift all sanctions it had imposed on Iran, then the regime would, in turn, return to its commitments under the nuclear deal. 

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"The ball is in America's court. When the US Court removes its illegal sanctions on Iran, everything will return to how it should be," the president said. 

Rouhani claimed that the US approach to threaten and apply "maximum pressure" on the regime has failed, saying "only an approach based on rationality and mutual respect will help overcome these challenges."

Nevertheless, in a conversation with his Swiss counterpart, President Guy Parmelin, Rouhani denied the possibility of a renewed nuclear deal. He claimed that Iran had acted with transparency as part of the nuclear agreement and repeated that when the US removes sanctions on Iran, in action and not just on paper, Tehran will recommit to the existing nuclear deal which the US chose to leave under the Trump administration. 

Act of Parliament will be executed on time (23 Feb) and the IAEA has been informed today to ensure the smooth transition to a new course in due time. After all, goodwill brings about goodwill!

— Gharibabadi (@Gharibabadi) February 15, 2021

In addition, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh warned that unless the US removes all sanctions, Iran will continue to defy the nuclear agreement.

Iran also informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it would limit IAEA inspectors' access to its nuclear sites. 

"The IAEA has been informed today [Monday] to ensure the smooth transition to a new course in due time," Iran's representative to the IAEA Kazem Gharibabadi tweeted. "After all, goodwill brings about goodwill!"

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"We are not insisting nor in a hurry for the US to return to the deal," Khamenei said in live televised remarks. "But what is logical is our demand, is the lifting of the sanctions. These brutal sanctions must be lifted immediately."

Tensions have grown between Tehran and Washington since 2018, when US President Donald Trump exited the deal between Iran and six world powers – which sought to limit Tehran's nuclear program and prevent it developing atomic weapons – and re-imposed sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy.

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In retaliation, Tehran started gradually violating the accord.

Potentially complicating efforts by US President-elect Joe Biden to rejoin the deal, Iran said on Monday it had resumed 20% uranium enrichment at its Fordo underground nuclear facility.

The UN nuclear watchdog confirmed that Iran had started the process of enriching uranium to 20% purity.

Tehran says it can quickly reverse its breaches if US sanctions are removed. Biden, who takes office on Jan. 20, has said the United States will rejoin the deal "if Iran resumes strict compliance" with the pact.

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Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps seized a South Korean-flagged tanker in Gulf waters, Iranian media said on Monday, at a time of tension between Tehran and Seoul over Iranian funds frozen at South Korean banks due to US sanctions.

Several Iranian media outlets, including Iranian state TV, said the Guards navy captured the vessel for polluting the Gulf with chemicals. The semi-official Tasnim news agency published pictures showing what it identified as Guards speed boats escorting the tanker HANKUK CHEMI, which it said was carrying 7,200 tons of ethanol.

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It said the vessel's crew members had been detained and included nationals of South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar, but did not say how many there were. It said the tanker was being held at Iran's Bandar Abbas port city.

South Korea's foreign ministry did not have an immediate comment. The US Navy's Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet was aware and monitoring the situation, spokeswoman Rebecca Rebarich said in response to a Reuters query.

Iranian authorities have yet to comment on the incident, which comes ahead of an expected visit by South Korea's deputy foreign minister to Tehran.

Iranian foreign ministry said on Monday that the visit would happen in coming days and would discuss Iran's demand that South Korea release $7 billion in funds frozen in South Korean banks because of US sanctions.

The United States re-imposed sanctions on Iran in 2018 after Washington withdrew from Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers. Tehran calls the US sanctions economic warfare.

Two maritime security companies earlier said the HANKUK CHEMI appeared to have been seized by Iranian authorities.British firm Ambrey said the South Korean-flagged vessel, owned by DM Shipping Co, had departed from the Petroleum Chemical Quay in Jubail, in Saudi Arabia, before the incident and had since been tracked inside Iranian territorial waters headed towards Bandar Abbas.

Another maritime security firm, Dryad Global, said on its website the chemical tanker had "likely been detained by Iranian forces" in the Strait of Hormuz while inbound to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

In early 2019, Iran heightened tensions in the world's busiest oil waterway by seizing British-flagged tanker Stena Impero two weeks after a British warship had intercepted an Iranian tanker off the coast of Gibraltar.

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