National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan issued a terse warning to Iran, on January 9, as Iran placed U.S. citizens on sanction lists, called for retribution against former President Trump and his Secretary of State Pompeo.
The second anniversary of the death of Iranian Quds Force General Qasem Soleimani was remembered in Iran with a series of martyrdom celebrations. In addition, the early-January remembrances saw President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi calling for former President Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo to be brought to justice, adding, “retribution must be carried out.”
Meanwhile, at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs they issued an “Update of the sanctions of U.S. persons involved in the assassination” of Soleimani. This update added 51 individuals to the 10 who were placed on this Iranian list in 2020 and 2021.
Iranian overt acts
The government calls for sanctions, trials, and retribution were accompanied by additional overt acts.
Iranian hackers successfully hacked into the Jerusalem Post website and the Twitter account of Israeli media outlet Maariv, where photos of a missile hitting Israel’s Dimona nuclear strike were placed with the text warning “We are close to you where you do not think about it.” And three separate drone attacks against U.S. facilities in Iraq occurred. These attacks were attributed to Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.
NSA Sullivan warning to Iran
National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, speaking on behalf of the administration, warned Iran about making threats and provocations against U.S. citizens.
In his statement, he highlighted that while Iran purports to impose sanctions on 51 individuals, that Iran continues to “carry out terror operations inside the United States and elsewhere around the world.” Sullivan did not mince his words, “Make no mistake: the United States of America will protect and defend its citizens. This includes those serving the United States now and those who formerly served.” He cautioned Iran to not mistake disagreements within the U.S. on politics or U.S. policy toward Iran as lack of resolve when it comes to responding to “threats and provocations.”
Simultaneously with the Sullivan’s statement, the U.S. special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley called for Iran to immediately release four U.S. citizens that they are holding (Bahareh Shargi, Morad Tahbaz, and Siamak and Baquer Namazi).
U.S. persons on Iran’s sanctions list
In 2020 and 2021, Iran placed President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, John Bolton, Mark Esper, Gina Haspel, Christopher Miller, Steven Mnuchin, Matthew Tueller, Steven Fagin, and Rob Waller on their sanctions list.
In the most recent action, Iran placed the following on their list: Mark Milley, Robert O’Brien, Paul Nakasone, Robert Greenway, Victoria Gardner Coats, Matthew Pottinger, Joseph Kellog, Frank Whitworth, Andrew Poppas, Kenneth McKenzie, Richard Clarke, Scott Howell, James Slife, Joseph Gustella, James Holmes, David Goldfin, Stephen Jones, Jason Bell, Andre Johnson, Kevin Auger, Jordan Smith, Abishai Giles, Landon Quan, Mark August, Bradley Saltzman, Mark Slocum, Nathan Mead, Timothy Garland, Staci Coleman, Kurt Wendt, Alexus Grynkewich, Daniel Tulley, Rodney Simpson, Allen Henderson, Jason Colon, Brenden Endrina, Tayler Arbaugh, Ryan Kuhn, Jordan Cornelius, Korbin Steinwehr, Antonio Dorce, Charles Corcoran, James Blue, Michael D’Andrea, John Keane, Reuel Gerecht, Andrew Croft, Nikki Haley, John Mulvaney and Erik Prince.
