US President Donald Trump on Friday signed an Executive Order that imposes sanctions, visa bans, and travel restrictions against nations or groups that use Americans as bargaining chips, the State Secretary announced in a statement.
"Today, President Trump signed an Executive Order that takes unprecedented action to impose new consequences on those who wrongfully detain Americans abroad," Marco Rubio said on Friday.
"Through this Executive Order, actors designated as State Sponsors of Wrongful Detention may face severe penalties including economic sanctions, visa restrictions, foreign assistance restrictions, and travel restrictions for US passport holders," he added.
The statement did not specify any particular country or group, but a notice on the State Department's Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs strongly warns Americans against visiting Iran over the risk of wrongful detentions.
"Americans, including Iranian-Americans and other dual nationals, have been wrongfully detained, taken hostage by the Iranian government for months, and years," the department says in its travel advisory.
"The threat of detention is even greater today, do not travel to Iran under any circumstances."
Last month, the State Department advised citizens against traveling to Iran citing what it called escalating paranoia and an unprecedented crackdown on alleged spies and opponents following a 12-day war with Israel.
"The Iranian regime, following the 12-day war with Israel, is in the midst of unprecedented paranoia and a crackdown on spies and regime opponents," the State Department said in a post on its Persian X account USA Beh Farsi.
In the aftermath of the 12-day war in June, Iranian authorities have intensified pressure on minority groups as well as foreign nationals, in what experts describe as an attempt to reassert control, deflect blame, and silence dissent.
Several Europeans have been detained on charges of cooperating with Israel. French citizens Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, held in Iran since 2022, now face new espionage charges that could carry the death penalty.
Iran’s judiciary chief recently announced that over 2,000 people have been detained since the war with Israel, some facing charges of “organized collaboration with the enemy”—a charge that can carry the death penalty.
