European Union plans to apply new sanctions against Iranian regime for deadly 2019 crackdown

The European Union will aim to eight commanders of Iranian militia and police already three entities diet with punishments next week for a deadly crackdown in November 2019 by Iranian authorities.

Travel bans and asset freezes will be the first time the EU has imposed sanctions on Iran for human rights violations since 2013 and they will be launched next week after the Easter holidays in Europe, as three diplomats confirmed to the agency Reuters.

Among the people to whom the sanctions will be addressed are members of the Iranian radical militia Basij, what is under the command of the Revolutionary Guards, the most powerful and heavily armed security force in the Islamic Republic.

Iran has repeatedly rejected the West’s accusations of human rights violations. The Iranian embassy in Brussels was not immediately available for comment, nor were other Iranian officials.

Around 1,500 people have died in less than two weeks of riots that began on November 15, 2019, according to a balance provided to Reuters by three officials from the Iranian Interior Ministry at the time. The United Nations said the total was at least 304. Iran called the number given by the sources “fake news.”

On March 9, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, presented a report in which he said that Tehran used lethal force during the protests and criticized it for failing to conduct a proper investigation and hold anyone responsible.

Nuclear deal

When asked why the bloc has taken so long to process its sanctions response, an EU diplomat involved in the preparations spoke of the need for strong evidence against those affected by the punitive measures.

The bloc has also so far avoided angering Iran in hopes of saving the nuclear deal. that Tehran signed with the world powers in 2015.

The three diplomats said that the sanctions were unrelated to efforts to revive the nuclear deal, from which the United States has withdrawn, but which it now intends to join. The deal made it difficult for Iran to accumulate the fissile material needed for a nuclear bomb – a goal it has long denied – in return for sanctions relief.

After days of protests across Iran in November 2019, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued order to crack down on protesters, reported Reuters in December 2019. This order, confirmed by three sources close to the inner circle of the Supreme Leader and a fourth official, launched the bloodiest crackdown on protesters since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In a statement following the publication of the Reuters article, a spokesperson for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council called the toll “false news,” according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

The United Nations has warned of the deterioration of human rights in Iran. Their March 9 report documented Iran’s high death penalty rate, executions of minors, the use of torture to force confessions, and the legal marriage of girls as young as 10 years old.

(With information from Reuters / Robin Emmott, John Irish)

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