BRUSSELS, Jan 23 (Portal) – The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on more than 30 Iranian officials and organizations, including units of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, blaming them for a “brutal” crackdown on protesters and other human rights abuses.
The United States and Britain have also imposed new sanctions on Iran, reflecting a deterioration in the West’s already tenuous relations with Tehran in recent months.
The foreign ministers of the 27 EU member states agreed on the measures at a meeting in Brussels.
The sanctions targeted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) units and senior officials across Iran, including in Sunni-populated areas where government crackdowns have been intense, according to a list published in the Official Journal of the EU.
Some EU governments and the European Parliament have made it clear that they want the IRGC as a whole to be added to the bloc’s list of terrorist organizations. But EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell noted that this could only happen if a court in an EU country found the IRGC guilty of terrorism.
“You can’t say, ‘I consider you terrorists because I don’t like you,'” he told reporters ahead of the talks in Brussels.
The new sanctions were imposed on 18 people and 19 organizations. Targets cannot travel to the EU and any assets they hold within the EU may be frozen.
EU-Tehran relations have taken a downward turn amid stalled efforts to revive talks over its nuclear program and as Iran attempted to arrest several European nationals.
The bloc has also become increasingly critical of Iran’s ongoing violent treatment of protesters, including executions, and the transfer of Iranian drones to Russia.
Sweden, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said the new sanctions target “those who push repression”.
“The EU strongly condemns the brutal and disproportionate use of force by the Iranian authorities against peaceful protesters,” Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said in a Twitter post from the EU diplomatic mission.
The IRGC was established shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shiite clerical system of rule. It has an estimated 125,000-strong military, including army, naval and air units, and commands the religious Basij militia, which is often used in raids.
“The Iranian regime and the Revolutionary Guards terrorize their own people every day,” said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Monday.
The day before the meeting in Brussels, over a thousand people took to the streets of the city to protest the detention of Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele in Iran.
Iran had previously warned the EU against labeling the IRGC a terrorist organization.
Reporting by Andrew Gray, Bart Meijer, Philip Blenkinsop and Parisa Hafezi, writing by Ingrid Melander and Gabriela Baczynska, editing by Peter Graff, Timothy Heritage and John Stonestreet
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