The Iranian government on Monday announced sanctions against «individuals and institutions» on the territory of European Union (EU) countries and in the United Kingdom, including Radio Farda and the French satirical magazine ‘Charlie Hebdo’, in response to criticism and punitive measures against Tehran over protests sparked in September following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly wearing the veil incorrectly.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry has issued two statements on its website detailing the individuals and institutions sanctioned and stressed that the measure «falls within the framework of the relevant sanctions rules and mechanisms» as a «reciprocal action».
Thus, it has charged the EU for its «deliberate actions in supporting terrorism and terrorist groups, inciting terrorism, violence and the spread of hatred, which has led to riots, violence, terrorist acts and violations of human rights against the Iranian people, subject to sanctions».
In this sense, he has revealed that those sanctioned are, in addition to Radio Farda and ‘Charlie Hebdo’, the Zamaneh radio station, the companies WETCO and Gidlemeister Projekta, which he accuses of «participating in the production of chemical weapons used by Saddam Hussein’s regime (during the war between 1980 and 1988), and several German and French politicians, including the former president of Parliament Rita Sussmuth and the former Minister of Defense Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.
«Iran recalls the obligations of the EU and the respective governments of these individuals and institutions that supporting, facilitating or failing to address the actions of these individuals and institutions would be a violation of their international obligations of the bloc and its member states for which they would be held accountable,» he has argued.
On the other hand, he stressed that the sanctions against individuals and entities in the UK is also «a reciprocal action» for the same reasons cited in the case of the measures against the EU and added that all this implies «a ban on the issuance of visas and the impossibility of entering Iran and the confiscation of their property and assets in the territory under the jurisdiction of the Islamic Republic».
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard recently confirmed that more than 300 people have died since the start of the protests, in what was the first official toll since the start of the mobilizations following the death of Amini, a member of the Iranian Kurdish minority. The figure is lower than that provided by NGOs, which point to more than 400 deaths due to repression by the security forces.
