{"text":[[{"start":11.34,"text":"Donald Trump has signed an executive order allowing the government to impose sanctions and travel restrictions against any country holding US citizens that it designates as a “state sponsor of wrongful detention”."}],[{"start":26.490000000000002,"text":"Friday’s order from the president comes two weeks before world leaders are set to convene in New York City for the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly, raising the possibility that the administration could use it to bar certain foreign leaders from attending."}],[{"start":44.57,"text":"Officials declined to say whether the new restrictions would be placed immediately on specific countries, but they suggested that the Iranian government might be a prime target."}],[{"start":56.35,"text":"“You are drawing a line in the sand that US citizens will not be used as bargaining chips,” Sebastian Gorka, Trump’s counterterrorism director, said of the executive order in the Oval Office."}],[{"start":69.7,"text":"A senior administration official said that travel restrictions in particular “are one of the most powerful tools we have for regimes who think that they can use our citizens as leveraging tools against the United States”."}],[{"start":86,"text":"“We will rapidly follow this up with use in some countries where we don’t always get along,” one senior administration official told reporters in a briefing ahead of the signing where Iran was repeatedly named as an offender."}],[{"start":102.8,"text":"Forty mostly Republican members of Congress on Friday urged Trump in a letter to “refrain from issuing visas” to Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, along with other “key” Iranian officials as a way to take a stand against the Islamic regime’s support for terrorism and human rights abuses."}],[{"start":123.78,"text":"The US last week said it would bar Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other senior Palestinian Authority officials from attending the meeting, where the UK, France, Canada, Australia and other US allies are set to recognise Palestinian statehood — a move strongly opposed by the Trump administration."}],[{"start":145.17000000000002,"text":"The state department does not provide a comprehensive list of countries detaining US citizens, but issues “do not travel” warnings for states that pose a “high risk” of detention, including Venezuela and Russia."}],[{"start":161.71,"text":"The new designation would “target countries that . . . persistently participate in hostage diplomacy”, a US official said. “So actors like China, Iran, Afghanistan are all going to be subject to this and will be reviewed for being tagged with the designation.”"}],[{"start":181.41,"text":"The UN Headquarters Agreement, signed in 1947, stipulates that the US government cannot impede travel to the UN by diplomats and delegates, which can include heads of state. The UN secretary-general has raised concerns with the state department about the restrictions on Palestinian officials."}],[{"start":203.9,"text":"The Trump administration framed the ban as a consequence, in part, for their co-operation with international courts investigating Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 64,000 Palestinians in 22 months, according to Palestinian health officials."}],[{"start":225.53,"text":"The Palestinian Authority, which governs limited parts of the occupied West Bank, is not believed to be holding any American citizens."}],[{"start":235.22,"text":"Additional reporting by Amy Mackinnon"}],[{"start":248.64,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftmailbox.cn/album/a_1757291866_2896.mp3"}