By Olivia Gazis and Camilla Schick
Updated Feb. 28, 2026 / 3:53 AM EST
As the administration moved closer to a decision on possible military strikes against Iran, the White House on Friday officially designated Iran as a state sponsor of wrongful detention.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the designation under an executive order signed last September that broadened U.S. authority to punish governments accused of holding Americans for political leverage. This is the first time a country has been named under that new framework.
“For decades, Iran has continued to cruelly detain innocent Americans, as well as citizens of other nations, to use as political leverage against other states,” Rubio said. “This abhorrent practice must end.”
The order gives Rubio the power to impose measures such as economic sanctions, export controls and visa restrictions on people or entities tied to wrongful detention practices. While some of the tools mirror those used in terrorism-related designations, they are built on separate legal authorities. Iran already has been on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1984.
The executive order also allows the United States to impose travel restrictions on U.S. passport holders, potentially limiting or banning travel to countries designated as sponsors of wrongful detention. Administration officials have argued that travel limits are among the most effective deterrents, aiming both to protect Americans from high-risk environments and to pressure governments that detain U.S. nationals.
If applied to Iran, travel measures could resemble U.S. restrictions on travel to North Korea, where Americans must obtain special validation to use their passports.
“The Iranian regime must stop taking hostage and release all Americans unjustly detained in Iran, steps that could end this designation and associated actions,” Rubio added.
About 600,000 people of Iranian descent live in the United States, according to the UCLA Center for Near East Studies — a diaspora that could be significantly affected if travel limits are expanded.
The move comes amid several high-profile detention cases, including the detention of Reza Valizadeh, an Iranian-American journalist whom U.S. officials and advocates describe as arrested for political reasons. Valizadeh is believed to be one of at least four Iranian-Americans held in Iran, sources told CBS News, a group that includes 70-year-old Kamran Hekmati and at least one other woman in her seventies.
Officials are also considering whether to apply the wrongful detention label to Afghanistan, which is known to be holding at least two U.S. citizens.
Margaret Brennan contributed to this report.