By Daphne Psaledakis, Steve Holland and Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order paving the way for Washington to designate countries around the world a state sponsor of wrongful detention and impose punitive measures, including sanctions, on those it deems are wrongfully holding Americans.
Senior administration officials said the United States would target countries currently holding wrongfully detained Americans as well as those that engage in “hostage diplomacy,” including China, Iran and Afghanistan, which one official said would be reviewed for designation.
“The bottom line: Anyone who uses an American as a bargaining chip will pay the price. This administration is not only putting America first but also putting Americans first,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
A second senior administration official said the penalties imposed on countries will be similar to how the United States deploys the Foreign Terrorist Organization designations and include measures such as sanctions, export controls and barring those deemed associated with wrongful detentions from entering the U.S.
“Today, everything changes with regards to rogue regimes and regimes who think Americans can be treated as pawns,” the second official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters.
Since taking office in January, Trump has prioritized the return of Americans held abroad. The officials on Friday said the administration had secured the return of 72 Americans, including from Russia and Afghanistan.
“We’ve gotten a lot of hostages,” Trump said at the signing.
The officials said that under the new policy, the United States will give notice to a country after identifying that there has been a wrongful detention, allowing them a certain amount of time to act before Washington begins to impose sanctions.
Trump could also choose to lift sanctions if there is progress, one of the officials said, adding that the aim was to create “really, really strong motivation” for people to think before they take an American and to return any who are being held.
“In a case like Iran … or Russia, I think you will see a change here,” the official said. Russia is believed to be holding nine Americans, with around eight held by Iran.
Iran, designated a State Sponsor of Terrorism by the United States, is already under heavy U.S. sanctions. Russia as well is under severe sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine.
In May, a source close to the Kremlin said that the U.S. had previously provided Moscow with a list of nine Americans jailed in Russia that Washington wants to have returned.
The Trump administration earlier this year secured the release of Marc Fogel, a U.S. schoolteacher and former employee of the U.S. embassy in Moscow, and Russian-American ballerina Ksenia Karelina.
The United States and China have also had tensions over exit bans, which Beijing has used on both Chinese and foreign nationals, often in connection with civil disputes, regulatory investigations, or criminal investigations.
In July, the U.S. State Department said that the Chinese government had blocked a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office employee visiting the Asian country in a personal capacity from leaving.
The U.S. has also been concerned about detentions of Americans in Venezuela.
Global Reach, a nonprofit that works to bring home Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad, commended Friday’s action.
“This designation is something that will put real teeth behind the US government’s efforts to bring home detained Americans and deter offending nations from engaging in ‘hostage diplomacy,'” CEO Mickey Bergman said in a statement.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Steve Holland and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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