US President Donald Trump moved Friday to create a blacklist of countries that Washington says unjustly detain Americans, spelling out harsh punishments including bans on travel.

In an executive order, Trump said the United States will now designate “state sponsors of wrongful detention,” similar to the powerful tool of branding countries as state sponsors of terrorism.

“With this EO you are signing today, you are drawing a line in the sand that US citizens will not be used as bargaining chips,” Trump aide Sebastian Gorka told reporters in the Oval Office.

The Trump administration did not immediately name countries for the new blacklist, but a senior official said that China, Iran and Afghanistan would be under review as they “persistently participate in hostage diplomacy.”

The countri

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