The Shia fundamentalist regime is detaining at least four Iranian-Americans, media reported on Saturday.
The four each went to Iran to visit relatives, according to their lawyers and human rights groups.
Three currently are in jail and the other is barred from leaving the country.
Two of those in jail were arrested after Israel on 13 June launched its 12-day aerial bombing campaign against the regime’s nuclear program.
The one barred from leaving the country is a woman who was arrested in December. She was released from custody, but her US and Iranian passports were confiscated.
She works for a US technology company and runs a charity for underprivileged children in Iran.
After the recent war, she was hit with espionage charges, which could land her in prison for many years or even lead to her execution.
The regime long has arbitrarily arrested Westerners for use as bargaining chips. Victims typically have been held for many months or years in harsh conditions before their countries secure their release.
Western nationals of Iranian origin who are arbitrarily detained are treated as purely Iranian and receive especially brutal treatment.
Though battered and humiliated by recent Israeli and US bombing, the regime remains deeply entrenched and is as ideologically extreme as ever.
It currently is engaged in a massive hunt for Israeli and US spies and informants.
Westerners of non-Iranian origin also have been arrested recently.
France on 7 July expressed concern about a French citizen missing in Iran, implying that he had been detained arbitrarily.
The French minister for citizens abroad said the case was “worrying because Iran has a deliberate policy of taking Western hostages.”
Based on social media posts, French media identified the missing man as an 18-year-old French-German dual national who began a bicycling trip in Iran on 16 June.
Corporate personnel should avoid Iran entirely.
