Iran Expands Blacklist Of US Nationals It Accuses Of Soleimani's Killing
Iran has blacklisted 51 more American nationals for their role in the 2020 targeted killing of Qasem Soleimani, the former commander of its Qods (Quds) force.
The Iranian foreign ministry updated the sanction list on Saturday, adding numerous new names to its previous version that had already included former president Donald Trump, former CIA directors Mike Pompeo and Gina Haspel, former UN envoy John Bolton, former defense secretaries Mark Esper and Christopher C. Miller as well as a few other officials.
Among the new names are Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, CENTCOM chief Kenneth F. McKenzie, Central Security Service chief Paul Nakasone, former national security advisors Matthew Pottinger and Keith Kellogg, and many other people from the military.
According to the statement, all of the people mentioned in the list had some role in the decision-making, planning, organizing, financing, directing or carrying out the strike that killed Soleimani at Baghdad airport in January 2020.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Supreme Leader Ali Khamene have time and again vowed revenge for the killing of Soleimani.
Soleimani, who was Iran’s top military and intelligence operator outside its borders, was in charge of supporting and organizing militant proxy forces, including the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraq Shiite militia groups that have repeatedly attacked US forces.
