EU Slaps More Sanctions On Iran After G7 Warning

Iran International Newsroom
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium May 5, 2021.
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium May 5, 2021.

The European Union on Monday imposed new sanctions on Iranian officials and entities for their role in the violent crackdown on popular protests.

The new package of sanctions targets five Iranians and two entities responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran, according to the European Council.

The Council listed the Revolutionary Guards’ Cooperative Foundation, which is the body responsible for managing the IRGC’s investments and funneling money into the regime’s repression machine.

The other IRGC entity that was blacklisted was its Student Basij Organization (SBO), which acts as the IRGC’s arm in enforcing hijab and cracking down protests on university campuses. “The SBO consists of the youngest and most radical members of the Basij," the EU said, adding that during raids on a number of university campuses -- including at Sharif University, Shahid Beheshti University and Amirkabir University -- security forces, including the SBO members, used live ammunition and opened fire on students.

IRGC’s Basij members cracking down on university students in Tehran
IRGC’s Basij members cracking down on university students in Tehran

Furthermore, the current commander of the Tehran Police Relief Unit of Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces (LEF), Salman Adinehvand, was added to the EU list because his unit “was directly responsible for the violent suppression of protests in Tehran in September and October 2022, during which dozens of protestors were killed by security forces using live ammunition.”

The secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace (SCC), Mohammad-Amin Aghamiri, was blacklisted over the blockage of popular online news and communications platforms. The SCC, the centralized authority for policymaking in cyberspace, has also used digital technology to spy on and harass journalists and regime dissidents, the EU statement said.

Mohsen Nikvarz, the public prosecutor of Sirjan in Kerman Province, was sanctioned over the “Maryam Arvin case” -- a lawyer who was brutally arrested, gravely mistreated, and subsequently died for her activities in defense of protesters. He was also responsible for several arbitrary arrests of lawyers and death sentences in Sirjan during the 2019 protests.

Deputy Supervisor of Public Spaces of the Public Security Police Colonel Nader Moradi was put on the list for persecution and arrest of shop owners who closed their businesses and were planning on striking in protest of the death of Mahsa Amini.

The other sanctioned official was Iranian police spokesman Saeed Montazerolmahdi, who repeatedly downplayed nationwide schoolgirl poisonings by claiming the "majority" of those alleged were "not real". “His intimidating statements on monitoring, the closure of businesses and other public spaces, and the warning texts that are being sent by the authorities have a very significant repressive impact,” added the statement.

EU’s restrictive measures now apply to a total of 216 individuals and 37 entities. They consist of an asset freeze, a travel ban to the EU and a prohibition to make funds or economic resources available to those listed.

The G7 countries had already issued a tough statement in their summit in Japan on Saturday, calling on all countries to consider UN resolutions against Iranian arms transfers.

“We express our grave concern regarding Iran’s continued destabilizing activities, including the transfer of missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and related technologies to state and non-state actors and proxy groups, in breach of UNSCRs including 2231 and 2216.”

The Iranian foreign ministry appeared jittery about the G7 statement. Its spokesman on Monday unleashed a barrage of criticism and accusations against “some members” of the group that he called “colonial” powers “who for decades have projected their policies of dominance over the world and especially in our region.”

Spokesman Nasser Kanaani flatly denied that Tehran has transferred armed drones to Moscow, despite overwhelming and clear material evidence. Russia has so far used hundreds of Iranian-made Shahed killer drones against Ukraine’s civilian targets.

G7 countries also expressed deep concern over Iran’s nuclear program that gallops forward with high levels of uranium enrichment.

“We reiterate our clear determination that Iran must never develop a nuclear weapon. We remain deeply concerned about Iran’s unabated escalation of its nuclear program, which has no credible civilian justification and brings it dangerously close to actual weapon-related activities,” the final communiqué said.

The G7 also accused the Islamic Republic of gross human rights violations, after unrelenting executions of dissidents and the killing of more than 500 people during protests in 2022 and jailing more than 20,000 people.

Iran’s unabated uranium enrichment, regional interventions that fuelled recent Israeli Palestinian fighting, and its provision of weapons for Russia can all add up and lead to an effort by the West to revive international sanctions against Tehran.