Washington (CNN) The US State and Treasury departments on Friday sanctioned 14 individuals and 17 entities linked to SPND, Iran's organization for defense, innovation and research.

"Our maximum pressure campaign on #Iran continues with today's sanctions on targets involved in the regime's nuclear program, including former nuclear weapons scientists. We'll be relentless in denying Iran the ability to engage in WMD proliferation and all its outlaw activities," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet.

In announcing the sanctions, senior administration officials suggested repeatedly that the existence of SPND and its subordinate organizations could provide cover for them to continue missile-related activity, despite the International Atomic Energy Agency's and US intelligence community's assessments that Iran has not engaged in activities that violate the Iran nuclear deal.

"In action after action over the last several years, the Iranian regime is expert at building out these front companies, pretending like they're from somewhere else doing something else and yet taking advantage in many different ways of the international financial system," a senior administration said.

That senior administration official said the action is targeting "the technical experts and critical entities linked to Iran's previous nuclear weapons effort."

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