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The United States issued fresh sanctions on Iran just days before talks between Washington and the Islamic Republic over its nuclear programme.
The US Treasury designated five entities and one individual based in Iran for their support of the country’s nuclear programme, the department announced.
The sanctions are intended to help prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
The designated groups played a crucial role in supporting two previously sanctioned entities that manage the country’s nuclear programme: the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and its subordinate, the Iran Centrifuge Technology Company (TESA), the Treasury said.
The action comes after Trump made a surprise announcement on Monday that the United States and Iran were poised to begin direct talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme. However, Iran’s foreign minister said the discussions in Oman would be indirect.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday, US President Donald Trump said: “We’re having direct talks with Iran and they’ve started. It’ll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting and we’ll see what can happen.
I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious. And the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with, or frankly that Israel wants to be involved with, if they can avoid it.
But it’s getting to be very dangerous territory, and hopefully those talks will be successful.”
Trump later added: “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and if the talks aren’t successful, I actually think it’ll be a very bad day for Iran.”
Hours later, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said “indirect high-level talks” would take place on Saturday in Oman.
“It is as much an opportunity as it is a test. The ball is in America’s court,” he wrote on X.
The Iran Centrifuge Technology Company is crucial to Iran’s uranium enrichment efforts through the production of centrifuges, the Treasury said in a statement.
The individual targeted by the new sanctions is Majid Mosallat, managing director of the Atbin Ista Technical and Engineering Company, which the Treasury said helps TESA acquire components from foreign suppliers.
“The Iranian regime’s reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons remains a grave threat to the United States and a menace to regional stability and global security,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement.
The US-Iranian talks in Oman are intended to address the long-standing dispute between Iran and the West over its nuclear programme. However, Iranian officials remain sceptical of progress, and President Trump has repeatedly threatened military action if no deal is reached.
Iran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful, but it has increasingly breached the restrictions imposed by the existing deal in retaliation for the crippling US sanctions reinstated seven years ago. Iran has also stockpiled enough enriched uranium to make several bombs.
