The United States has warned all American citizens to leave Iran immediately amid escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran following a continuous deadlock over Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programme.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Iran had been formally designated a “state sponsor of wrongful detention", accusing Tehran of holding foreign nationals for political leverage.
Rubio warned that “no American citizen should travel to Iran for any reason. We reiterate our call for Americans who are currently in Iran to leave as soon as possible.”
While some officials say the move was in response to longstanding grievances dating back to the 1979 hostage crisis, some critics note that the latest order is a move to impose more pressure on Tehran over its nuclear programme and the possibility of military action if talks collapse.
US President Donald Trump has said that he will not accept anything less than a complete stoppage of Iran’s nuclear programme while expressing his dissatisfaction with progress in the ongoing negotiations.
"They should make a deal, but they don’t want to go far enough,” he said, adding, “So I’m not happy with the negotiations.”
Although Tehran has constantly denied seeking nuclear weapons and maintained that its nuclear programme is for peaceful and civilian purposes and will remain open to international verification.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described the latest round of talks in Geneva on Thursday as the “most serious and longest” to date, with “good progress” made on both nuclear restrictions and sanctions relief.
Mediator Oman also hailed the progress in the latest talks and described the negotiations as constructive.
Technical-level meetings are scheduled to resume in Vienna next week. Vice President JD Vance sought to reassure Americans that any potential strike would not devolve into another prolonged Middle East conflict.
“There is no chance” of a years-long war, he said on Thursday, while cautioning against what he called “overlearning” the lessons of past interventions.
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