US Levels Punishment Against Iranian Interrogators  

President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday issued its first set of sanctions against Iranian officials since taking office, accusing two interrogators in Tehran of torture and human rights violations. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ali Hemmatian and Masoud Safdari, of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, were guilty of “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” of protesters arrested during the 2019-2020 demonstrations. The two will be barred from entering the United States, along with their family members. Washington hopes Tuesday’s blacklisting won’t impede efforts to bring Tehran to the negotiating table, as the White House looks to return to the 2015 nuclear deal reached between Iran and world powers. After former President Donald Trump exited the pact in 2018 and imposed harsh sanctions on the Islamic Republic, Tehran went on to breach some of the contract’s central terms. Each side now insists the other be the first to return to full compliance with the agreement.