 On 17 May 2018 the European Commission announced its intention to implement the blocking statute of 1996 to declare the US sanctions against Iran null and void in Europe and ban European citizens and companies from complying with them.The Commission also instructed the European Investment Bank to facilitate European companies' investment in Iran.The first United States sanctions against Iran were imposed by President Carter in November 1979 by after a group of radical students seized the American Embassy in Tehran taking hostage the people inside after the U.S. permitted the exiled Shah of Iran to enter the United States for medical treatment.